Help Protect The Honey Bees - Act Now

We have the chance to get one of the neonicotinoid pesticides banned but we must act quickly. It will just take a few moment of your time.

Clothianidin, is produced by the German corporation Bayer CropScience. It is used as a treatment on crop seeds, including corn and canola, and works by expressing itself in the plants' pollen and nectar. These are some of honey bees' favorite sources of food.  No major independent study has verified the safety of this pesticide. However independent studies have shown that neonicotinoid pesticides like clothianidin are highly toxic to honey bees, providing compelling evidence that they should be immediately taken off the market until the E.P.A. can conduct a full and valid scientific review. 

Clothianidin was approved by the EPA in 2010 - but now the EPA is reviewing this approval. The deadline to submit a comment is Tuesday and we need to urge federal administrators to cancel the approval of this dangerous chemical. 

You can use this link to voice your opinion to the EPA. Every voice helps. Just click the "Submit a comment" box in the upper right hand corner to write to them. If you think they may want additional information from you to support what you tell them, include an email, address or phone.

Here is an example of what I wrote to them.

No major independent study has verified the safety of Clothianidin. However independent studies have shown that neonicotinoid pesticides like clothianidin are highly toxic to honey bees, providing compelling evidence that they should be immediately taken off the market until the E.P.A. can conduct a full and valid scientific review. Our honey bee population is dwindling and without them we will loose many of our major food crops. Please take Clothianidin off the market. You can find some of this research at these links below. I can supply additional information if you like. Sharol Tilgner - sharoltilgner@yahoo.com

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0029268

http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1603

More information on the honey bees at these links:

Dreaming A Beautiful World: Honey Bee Pesticide Exposure - New ...

Jan 19, 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 ...

Dreaming A Beautiful World: Dan Rather Honey Bee Report

Sep 23, 2011

This fantastic Dan Rather report on the honey bees and the damage done to the honey bees by neonicotinoid pesticides can be seen by clicking below on vimeo.com. As we suspected all along current research is continuing ...

New United Nations Report on Honey Bees - Dreaming A Beautiful ...

Mar 14, 2011

New United Nations Report on Honey Bees. The United Nations just put out a news release on the world-wide decline of our honey bees. On March 10, 2011 the United Nations wrote “The way humanity manages or ...

Dreaming A Beautiful World: Save The Honey Bees

Mar 02, 2011

Bee Keepers try to keep up with the loss. Each year they loose 30-40% of their hives. This can't keep up. Some of them are going out of business. Who will pollinate our food if not for the honey bees. Although there are other ...

Dreaming A Beautiful World: A Cause of the Honey Bee Deaths

Nov 15, 2010

My bees died this spring. They had been healthy and happy 5 days prior when I had put an essential oil in their hive to kill off mites. Something I do every spring and not something that would harm them. However, 5 days later ...

Honey Bee Pesticide Exposure - New Study

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.

Christian H. Krupke^1*, Greg J. Hunt¹, Brian D. Eitzer², Gladys Andino¹, Krispn Given¹

1 Department of Entomology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States of America, 2 Department of Analytical Chemistry, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America

You can read the entire research article including their discussion of the results at this link: 

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0029268

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.

http://dreamingabeautifulworld.blogspot.com/2011/09/dan-rather-honey-bee-report.html

Sept 23, 2011

Dreaming A Beautiful World: A Cause of the Honey Bee Deaths

Nov 15, 2010

New United Nations Report on Honey Bees

Mar 14, 2011

Dreaming A Beautiful World: Bill To Save The Bees

Mar 10, 2011

Dreaming A Beautiful World: Save The Honey Bees

Mar 02, 2011

Dan Rather Honey Bee Report

This fantastic Dan Rather report on the honey bees and the damage done to the honey bees by neonicotinoid pesticides can be seen by clicking below on vimeo.com. As we suspected all along current research is continuing to validate our thoughts on the neonicotinoids along with other pesticides causing colony collapse disorder as well as general ill health amongst the honey bees.

In this report, the companies making neonicotinoids claim the systemic neonicotinoids are safer for humans as they use less of them on the plants. This conclusion is not necessarily true. Neonicotinoids are used as systemics with particular efficacy against sucking insects and they have a long residual activity. They may not be spraying them as often as they use to BUT, that is because they don't need to. The pesticide remains in the plant for a long time. If a pesticide is systemic in the plant and lasts in that plant for a long time, how much of this insecticide remains in the plants when people eat them?  Any amount is too much to me!

http://vimeo.com/29419200

If you want to know more about the honey bees, here are past posts on the honey bees.

Dreaming A Beautiful World: A Cause of the Honey Bee Deaths

Nov 15, 2010

New United Nations Report on Honey Bees

Mar 14, 2011

Dreaming A Beautiful World: Bill To Save The Bees

Mar 10, 2011

Dreaming A Beautiful World: Save The Honey Bees

Mar 02, 2011