Environment & Energy
Related: About this forum50,000 Bumblebees Dead After Neonicotinoid Pesticide Use in Oregon
(Beyond Pesticides, June 24, 2013)
According to the Xerces Society, this is the largest known incident of bumblebee deaths ever recorded in the country. Bumblebees, which are crucial to pollination of multiple berry and seed crops grown in the Willamette valley, have recently experienced dramatic population declines, a fate that is similar to other pollinators. Dan Hilburn, Director of plant programs at the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA), told Oregon Live that hes never encountered anything quite like it in 30 years in the business. The incident highlights the difficulty of permitting in commerce such a highly toxic material that indiscriminately kills beneficial insects.
A recent study, An overview of the environmental risks posed by neonicotinoid insecticides, published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, documents that neonicotinoid persistence in soil and water can cause broad and far-reaching impacts on ecosystem health, much of which have undergone little scientific scrutiny. The author asserts that world leaders have failed to meet their commitment made at the 2002 Convention on Biological Diversity to achieve a significant reduction in the rate biodiversity loss. He points to neonicotinoids as a potential cause of this failure, due to their long-term persistence in soil and water. He specifically points to soil dwelling insects, benthic aquatic insects, grain-eating vertebrates, and pollinators as being in particular danger from the use of these chemicals.
The ODA and Xerces Society had been working together to investigate the pesticide poisoning. After interviewing the landscaping company that maintains dozens of ornamental trees around the parking lot, ODA investigators learned that Safari, a pesticide product with the active ingredient dinotefuran, had recently been applied on Saturday, June 15 to control aphids. Dinotefuran is a neonicotinoid pesticide that is highly toxic to bees; the products label strictly forbids its use if bees are in the area.
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KT2000
(20,601 posts)are the ones educating the people who use pesticides. Often they also ridicule the people who have doubts about their safety as "tree huggers." I will bet the applicators did not even wear the proper protective gear.
Get to the bottom of this - where did they buy this crap, who was the salesperson, where did they get their information about its attributes and so-called safety. Everyone needs to be held accountable.
Javaman
(62,534 posts)first, I keep bees.
second, the average well maintained hive has roughly 15 to 17 thousand bees.
50k bees are not a representation of 300 hives, unless they had some sort of hive convention that sent representatives from 300 hives.
50k bees at most represent 3 hives.
While I'm completely against the use of the various known pesticides that appear to be the cause of CCD, I'm also against shoddy reporting.
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)Just now googled 'how many bumble bees in a colony'
Beats me though. Happy bee keeping.