<<Is this not being a little disingenuous?
These are only the visible effects where there are bodies available for
post
mortem; no account is taken of the sub-lethal effects of neonicotinoids as
far as I can see.
Again I must say that in over 30 years of beekeeping we had no problems
with
the 'old' insecticides that were only used when there was a measurable
problem. >>
I've just spent a week going through Johansen and Mayer's book on
pesticides. In the USA, they and Lawrence Atkins performed the majority of the
label registration toxicity and field weathered residue tests for these
'older' pesticides. The book, dated 1999, is now out of print, but I'm working
to see if Larry Conner can reprint. Its surviving author, Dan Mayer lives
just down the road from me.
One thing that is apparent - sub-lethal effects were well known for the
'older' pesticides AND bee losses weren't reported as number of bees dead,
but by the 1000s or 10s of 1000s of colony totally wiped out, killed, per
state per year.
Neonics appeared in the 90s. Varroa and Tracheal mites first showed up in
US a bit earlier, but took a decade to spread over all of the country.
Look at this from the Nat Acad Report on Pollinator Decline:
"The supply of healthy and affordable honey bee colonies for crop
pollination clearly has been threatened by the arrival of parasitic mites Varroa
destructor and Acarapis woodi. Since 1981—just before the arrival of A. woodi—
stocks of honey bee colonies in the United States have declined by 39
percent (_Figure 2-1_ (http
://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11761&page=40#p2001245e9960040001) ; USDA-NASS, 1995, 1999, 2005, 2006). Parasitism by
mites of honey bees is a relatively recent problem in North America. A 1980–
1982 survey of samples from 4,400 apiaries in the United States and Canada
revealed no evidence of mite infestation (Shimanuki et al., 1983). The varroa
mite was first reported in the United States in 1987 (Anonymous, 1987) and
within a decade it had become established throughout the United States."
That puts varroa widespread by 1997, same time as neonics. But neonics
were already being used in Canada and USA, while varroa spread into Canada
was delayed a bit by closing the borders. A 39% decline is significant.
Based on the Johansen and Mayer book, the number of colonies lost to verified
pesticides nowdays is far below that of recent history. Now, I will admit
that I freely tell the press, the bigger issue in US, much of the world, is
not the loss of colonies per se but loss of numbers of beekeepers.
CCD, varroa, neonics - all brought attention to Pollinator Decline. As a
result, we're seeing an unprecedented increase in numbers of beekeepers,
and again, this appears to be global.
Jerry
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