Latest Pesticide toxicity to bees Stories
In an attempt to counteract the disappearance of bees, Britons are beginning to keep their own bees in small urban gardens.Beekeeping is an age-old practice that is now making a come-back in Britain, as people become increasingly worried about the future of food and a strong desire to make a difference in the environment.Only 6 months ago, 43 year-old Jon Harris was just learning how to keep bees, now he has a successful hive in his small back garden in Brixton, south London."That...
Attendees of this year's Apimondia, the 41st world apiculture congress, in southern France are focusing on what is killing the world's bees.Pesticides, viruses, industrialized farming and fungus are among the possible reasons why bee hives throughout parts of North America, Europe, and Asia have been struck by a mysterious ailment known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Although bee communities naturally lose around five percent of their numbers during normal times, up to 90 percent can...
Additional restrictions on three pesticides will help protect salmon in four western states, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Friday. Changes in the use of three organophosphate pesticides -- chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion -- should keep water cleaner in California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, EPA officials said in a release. The changes, to be noted on product labels, include the addition of pesticide buffer zones and application limits based on wind speed, soil...
Researchers report this week that they have found a surprising but reliable marker of colony collapse disorder, a baffling malady that in 2007-2008 killed off more than a third of commercial honey bees in the U.S.Their study, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to identify a single, objective molecular marker of the disorder, and to propose a data-driven hypothesis to explain the mysterious disappearance of American honey bees. The team included researchers...
Damage to the honey bee's internal protein-producing "factories" may provide researchers with a new clue to the sudden collapse of honey bee colonies across the nation. Colony collapse disorder is a phenomenon in which worker bees from beehives or colonies abruptly disappear. These disappearances have been happening since the dawn of apiculture, but the term "˜colony collapse disorder' was first used to describe a drastic increase in the number of disappearances of Western honey bee colonies...
Experts say that Parisian bees are thriving in urban areas of the city as opposed to the countryside, AFP reported.Apparently, the bees are aware that suburban areas offer all sorts of flowers that are only a short flight away, and the city offers less risk of succumbing to pesticides.The penthouse hives atop some of the city's best and historically prestigious monuments, such as the steel and glass domed Grand Palais exhibition hall by the banks of the Seine, have become the new natural...
U.S. and Belgian scientists say they've found higher levels of pathogens in honeybee colonies affected by colony collapse disorder than in healthy colonies. The researchers said they also found bees in colonies with the collapse disorder are infected with a greater number of pathogens than their non-infected counterparts. However, no individual pathogen can be identified as the cause of the collapse disorder. Colony collapse disorder is described in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.org as a...
A suburban Miami woman said a bee removal specialist destroyed about 250,000 bees inside the walls of her home. Mary Olarte of Miami Shores said she was not concerned when dead bees began appearing outside of her house but she was shocked when a contractor discovered three thriving hives within the walls of her home, the Miami Herald reported Thursday. Willie Sklaroff, proprietor of bee removal service Willie the Bee Man, said all of the bees were destroyed Tuesday due to fears they may have...
PHILADELPHIA, May 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- FMC Corporation (NYSE: FMC) strongly disagrees with the announcement by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to revoke all U.S. food tolerances for the pesticide carbofuran. FMC plans to file objections to this action by the EPA and to seek an administrative hearing. "We are very disappointed by the EPA revocation and their unwillingness to recognize that our voluntary changes to the label allowed the product to meet the...
For the first time, scientists have isolated the parasite Nosema ceranae (Microsporidia) from professional apiaries suffering from honey bee colony depopulation syndrome. They then went on to treat the infection with complete success.In a study published in the new journal from the Society for Applied Microbiology: Environmental Microbiology Reports, scientists from Spain analyzed two apiaries and found evidence of honey bee colony depopulation syndrome (also known as colony collapse disorder...
