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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: Lewis Cauble <lewis AT hivebody.com>
  • To: OCBA <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] BEE Protective this Earth Day
  • Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:16:05 -0400 (EDT)

While I agree that we should all be concerned about the neonics and their potential to harm our bees, I do not understand how they have been so singled out in the bee community as the foremost enemy to bee health.  Bee health is complicated for sure and I have no problem with folks losing some sleep over the neonics, however, for every night of sleep you lose over neonics you should also be losing a night of sleep worrying about other insecticides like the pyrethroids and chlorpyrifos, not to mention varroa, fungicides, and the myriad combinations of pesticides and diseases (virus included).  It's frustratingly complicated and the answers are not easy. 

 

As Jamie Ellis pointed out at the Spring meeting, fungicides generally get a free pass under our current method of pesticide registration.  In our current method of pesticide registration we place the compund being tested on bees (in a lab setting, not in the field)and determine at what level we see effects (short term effects of 4 to 96 hours). The compound is also fed to the bees in s sugar solution (also in a lab setting). Fungicides are designed to kill a fungus and not insects, so you can generaly put a load of fungicide on a bee and not observe any effects in the 4 to 96 hour time frame.  Great!  It's safe for bees!  How the fungicides effect the bee bread may not be investigated as the product is being registered.  In the future I hope we will see better testing procedures that will answer other questions besides "Does placing this compound on the thorax of a bee (or feeding it to the bee) kill it within 4 to 96 hours?"  It's complicated.

 

Here is a great article that sheds some (I think) good light on some of the pesticide issue. One point that they make that stands out for me is..."the hazard due to pyrethroid residues is three-times greater than that of neonicotinoids detected in pollen samples."  It's complicated. 

 

My goal is not to allay anyone's fear of the neonics, but to heighten everyone's awareness of other issues related to bee health and pesticides.  It's complicated.

 

Lewis

 



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