Multiple Routes of Pesticide Exposure for Honey Bees Living Near Agricultural Fields is the title of a new research article published on honey bee deaths. It was published on January 3, 2012.
Abstract: Populations of honey bees and other pollinators have declined worldwide
in recent years. A variety of stressors have been implicated as
potential causes, including agricultural pesticides. Neonicotinoid
insecticides, which are widely used and highly toxic to honey bees, have
been found in previous analyses of honey bee pollen and comb material.
However, the routes of exposure have remained largely undefined. We used
LC/MS-MS to analyze samples of honey bees, pollen stored in the hive
and several potential exposure routes associated with plantings of
neonicotinoid treated maize. Our results demonstrate that bees are
exposed to these compounds and several other agricultural pesticides in
several ways throughout the foraging period. During spring, extremely
high levels of clothianidin and thiamethoxam were found in planter
exhaust material produced during the planting of treated maize seed. We
also found neonicotinoids in the soil of each field we sampled,
including unplanted fields. Plants visited by foraging bees (dandelions)
growing near these fields were found to contain neonicotinoids as well.
This indicates deposition of neonicotinoids on the flowers, uptake by
the root system, or both. Dead bees collected near hive entrances during
the spring sampling period were found to contain clothianidin as well,
although whether exposure was oral (consuming pollen) or by contact
(soil/planter dust) is unclear. We also detected the insecticide
clothianidin in pollen collected by bees and stored in the hive. When
maize plants in our field reached anthesis, maize pollen from treated
seed was found to contain clothianidin and other pesticides; and honey
bees in our study readily collected maize pollen. These findings clarify
some of the mechanisms by which honey bees may be exposed to
agricultural pesticides throughout the growing season. These results
have implications for a wide range of large-scale annual cropping
systems that utilize neonicotinoid seed treatments.
You can read the entire research article including their discussion of the results at this link:
Please contact your representatives about this problem and ask them to submit a bill to save the honey bees from neonicotinoid poisoning. I am including a link here that will allow you to easily look up your federal and state representatives names and contact address/email/phone numbers. http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr/
If you want to know more about the honey bees, here are past posts on the honey bees.
Sept 23, 2011
Mar 02, 2011
I had just been alerted to this study from Phil Chandler's Bee Alert email. As a beekeeper, and someone who lives right in the agricultural heartland (central Illinois), pesticides have always been my number one suspect in the decline of our pollinators. Excellent that this new article points out all the different vectors of transmission! Don Huber's report should have turned our country on it's ear. Maybe some folks are silly enough to poo poo pollinator population declines, but when he clearly stated it is affecting human health, animals and plants? I cringe when I still see bottles of Roundup on the shelves at the stores and have been known to stop in the street if while driving I see someone out in their yard or on their sidewalk spraying that poison. At times, people have listened while I politely try to educate them of the dangers of the product they are using... sometimes it is lesson in futility.. but I just can't be quiet about it!
ReplyDeleteAwhile ago it was making headlines about a parasitic fly and bees and several people emailed me the article, saying "ah ha! the cause of colony collapse!" I told them that the fly had always been here and I truly believe the only reason they are preying on honeybees now also, is because our poor bees are so poisoned and weak from pesticides and other chemicals! Thank you for sharing this article! I am dreaming of a beautiful world with no glyphosate herbicides, neonicotinoid pesticides, or Round up Ready seeds!