pettis

Top US Bee Experts: Nicotine Pesticides Worsen Bee Diseases

Submitted by Kevin Hansen on February 12, 2012 - 21:34

This is a really big deal:

A team of the top United States honeybee experts at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Beltsville, Maryland, laboratory near Washington DC has published a damning report linking tiny sub-lethal concentrations of one nicotine pesticide, imidacloprid, with an increase in another common gut disease, Nosema.

Although many other studies before this suggested similar findings, the US government has been far behind - this is therefore a breakthrough. It also acknowledges some of the major work done by French researchers: until now, the groundbreaking French research was largely ignored by official US government agencies. Look for breakthroughs because of this work.

The original article linked above was released for public/open access (thanks Springer Publishing for making this open access!!). It is a top-downloaded article at this time on Springer's website.

Abstract of Original Article:

Unconfirmed report - Pollen may be "Entombed" by bees when too toxic: US researcher tells UK Parliamentarians

Submitted by Pierre Terre on April 23, 2011 - 15:22

Excerpt from this independent report - I cannot confirm the person or the material, and will update this posting if possible:

".....Pettis tells the MPs that he and Penn State University researcher Dennis van Engelsdorp had discovered the bees have the capability to detect pesticide residues in the pollen. Once they bring the pollen back to the hive and detect pesticide residues, they isolate it from the other pollen in the colony. They use propolis to seal up wax cells full of pollen to put it out of use and protect the rest of the hive from their contents. The pollen stored in the sealed-up cells was found to contain dramatically higher levels of pesticides and other potentially harmful chemicals than the pollen stored in neighboring cells, which is used to feed growing young bees.
“This is a novel finding, and very striking,” Pettis said.

Location: 
Houses of Parliament London, LND
United Kingdom
51° 30' 0.5472" N, 0° 7' 34.4496" W
See map: Google Maps

Location

Houses of Parliament London, LND
United Kingdom
51° 30' 0.5472" N, 0° 7' 34.4496" W
See map: Google Maps

Excellent Analysis of New Bee-Dieoff Research by Scottish Beekeeper Graham White

Submitted by Pierre Terre on January 20, 2011 - 13:05

Please see an important article from The Independent Newspaper in London: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/exclusive-bees-facing-a-...

Very Good Analysis of the data presesnted by Mike McCarthy in The Independent (link above) by Graham White, Bee-keeper, 'Friends of the Bees' - Location: Coldstream, Scottish Borders; Tel: (44) 01890 882 713 

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