Spring

Honeybee Dieoff Link to Corn Planting Process - Italy Researchers

Submitted by Kevin Hansen on February 19, 2012 - 20:09

The process of planting can release large amounts of pesticides coated on seeds - as dust. Corn/maize is widely treated with a coating laced with toxins: neonicotinoid pesticides, fungicides and a host of other substances are physically stuck to the grains of corn. This is a brittle substance that breaks off and creates a large dust problem - a toxic dust.

The team of researchers at the University of Padua, Italy, led by Andrea Tapparo has found significant mortality to honeybees as a result of this exposure. This was closely related to the spring-planting die-off blamed in Germany for a honeybee catastrophe several years ago.

This article is accepted - and will be published in the American Chemical Society's (ACS) journal "Environmental Science and Technology."

We have read a pre-print - look for this one to be downloadable soon.

A Spring Without Bees

Michael Schacker's book A Spring Without Bees has influenced a large body of people around the world to help with the global honeybee situation - and the entire web of life for which it is a bellwether. This book was highly influential and helpful in our work producing our film Nicotine Bees.
 
For anyone interested in this subject, this is the best starting point - the product of enormous research effort. 
 

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