> These groups are not driven by fact.  they could care less what Chems are found the most in dead hives. The pressures is on to ban this group of pesticides,  and they are in fact winning.

If you know anything about the companies that make these products, you know they have been working on new formulations all along. The focus on one product class is actually taking people's attention away from other classes. Pest control products have a limited lifespan anyway, either due to resistance development, or patent expiration.

> Several papers are now out showing that bee viruses are more virulent where environmental chemicals like pesticides, fungicides, etc are also present. What we now need to know is what levels of these chemicals cause that heightened susceptibility to viruses among the bees. 

Of course, when a sick individual is exposed to stresses they will react more negatively than a healthy individual. Testing of products is not normally done on sick individuals, they are the outliers. 

Unfortunately, as has been demonstrated over and again, it is very difficult to find healthy chemical free colonies to use as guinea pigs. About the only ones that fit this bill are African bees, which introduces another confounding factor. 

But when you look at all the things that cause organisms to sicken and fail, the number directly related to environmental chemicals is relatively small. The are far greater risks than those, but people focus on this as scapegoats for whatever is wrong with their lives. 

It has already been shown that banning pesticides does not bring about an improvement in bee health. Furthermore, there is no clear evidence that there massive die-offs in any case. It's mostly hyperbole.

PLB

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