----- Bob
I've recovered enough from two runs on double pneumonia to rise to the
bait.
You've said many things about the CCD team, and most recently:
"I have looked at a large number of the hives from the CCD survey.
Certainly
a higher number than were sampled by the CCD team."
Ok, FYI, just because one individual or group from the 'CCD Team'
says/publishes something, does not mean that represents the views of the
'Team'. The
'Team' per se has not issued a joint report since last spring. If you
disagree with findings of individual members, reference whose findings you
wish to
refute.
I don't know about the other members of the CCD team, but we've (Bee
Alert/Univ. MT) sampled bee colonies at over 60 widely spaced locations
across the
U.S., plus we've received samples from many more. Just this last month, we
sampled 700 colonies in CA. Not just looked at, sampled. And, we've
looked at
many more locations. In a given day, we often sample some, look at many
more beeyards. Why not sample all? We just don't have the resources to
process all of the samples that we could take.
I'm sorry, but if you read the PSU chemical report and listened to our own
presentations, you will find that like Jeff Pettis, we don't see any pattern
pointing to the neonicotinics. And traces of pesticides are always found
in
bees. Which ones show up in high levels depends on the area and decade.
Our
data over the past 30 years shows shifts from the DDT organics, to the
carbamates and organophosphates, with the neonicotinics adding another
category
over the past 10 years. Big kills in the west over recent years have
often been
from Furidan and Sevin.
Do pesticides kill bees - certainly. But its on a case by case, site by
site basis. In the west, you'll find large beekeepers in TX, AZ, CA who
pulled
bees back away from crops this year, placed them at desert locations to
reduce exposure to pesticides, and still they lost bees to CCD over past
few
weeks. And the Canadians aren't reporting widespread CCD on canola, with
huge
tracts of this crop treated with neonicotinics.
Ask me if a certain beekeeper with bees on watermelons, whose bees dropped
in the melons and continued to drop after being removed, is likely to have
sustained a pesticide kill, I'd say yes. Ask me if CCD is caused by
neonicotinics, I'd say there's no compelling evidence for picking on this
pesticide and
ignoring the others.
However, and unfortunately, one could make a stronger case for the
chemicals
beekeepers place inside bee hives to control mites and other pests as a
causative factor. For example, mainly in colonies from the east coast, we
found
a high frequency of high levels of paradichlorobenzene in the 'air' inside
the hives - not just in the comb.
Please don't get me wrong - if someone like Dave Hackenberg has data about
high level of neonicotinics in his colonies from a given grower (which I'm
told
he has), then in that case, at that site, I'd take a harder look at the
neonicotinics. Should beekeepers avoid crops treated with neonicotinics?
That's a personal choice, and its one that can only be made by the
beekeeper who
knows the history/context of the individual case.
I think a more important issue is that the beekeeper and grower need to
discuss what will be used, how much, and when. Better awareness that there
are
choices is far more important. Suggest less toxic OR chemicals of less
concern (to you, the individual beekeeper). For too many years, beekeepers
have
been reluctant to advise growers about what to do, for fear that the grower
would find someone else to pollinate the crop. For the safety of your
bees, you
need to openly discuss this issue.
Jerry
**************Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL Living.
(http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/
2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)
****************************************************
* General Information About BEE-L is available at: *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm *
****************************************************
|
