Subject: [BEE-L] Fears for crops as shock figures from America show scale of bee catast rophe I think its important to keep these types of reports in front of the public as the numbers of hive loss worldwide keeps growing. 50% common in large *UP.SO. migratory operations* and 75-80% not uncommon. A decent winter loss today is 25% to 35%. In years gone past 10% or less. Many hypothesis exist about the reasons . No "smoking gun" has been found so most hypothesis can be based *to a degree* on a feasible cause except perhaps for "honeybee rapture" as a cause told to me by a preacher. The preacher said he was going to be taken up next! Five years into the problem many of us can see patterns starting to develop. Most researchers working on a possible cause and focused on a single cause can not *in my opinion* see these patterns. Why would they as with most their actual daily lab work does not include looking at the shear number of hives the commercial industry sees. The first pattern to develop was location. the location the bees were on before the crash. Whole semi loads crashing as in 2006 with Lance Sundberg & Dave Hackenberg ( start of CCD) is kind of a first. In the Sundberg case the bees were in great shape two weeks earlier. *if* location is important then why? Is the key to improvement in hive loss for the larger operator choosing better pollination contracts and not using locations on which most hives start crash year after year? Below taken from the spring newsletter of the Missouri extension service page 2: I found the extension service has been advising farmers to drench their hay and pasture fields with imidacloprid ( Merit) to kill White grubs. While killing the White grubs being systemic all the white Dutch and other plants bees work are picking up the imidacloprid. Form the newsletter: " Preventive application is best applied in May or June. Chemicals such as imidacloprid ( merit) or halofenozide ( Mach 2) are recommended. These chemicals are safest for humans and other animals and are relatively non-toxic to earth worms , birds and honeybees" " These chemicals provide SEASON-LONG CONTROL , lasting six to eight weeks in the soil. " I have been doing detective work and have found the use of imidacloprid for White grubs in a field close to my hives during May & June 2009 ( Our main white Dutch clover flow) has caused population loss and dead hives. There are other choices for killing white grubs than imidacloprid a systemic pesticide! I dug down in a field on which imid had been used and guess what. I could not find an earthworm. bob *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Access BEE-L directly at: http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A0=BEE-L