>
> >The recent issue of the Journal of Entomology has two articles which we
> have already posted. I would hasten to point out that both of them point
> very strongly to the beekeeper's abuse of pesticides as a very likely cause
> of honey bee decline.


Pete, I heartily concur, except that I would tone down the word "abuse."
Well-meaning beekeepers applying legal miticides per label instructions
still inadvertently poisoned their colonies.

To all, note the the P450 enzymes that bees use to detoxify fluvalinate and
coumaphos, are also critical for a number of other physiological processes.
The point is that residues of such miticides in the combs likely interfere
with some basic physiological processes of the bee.  The miticides may not
cause direct bee mortality, but can leave the bees susceptible to the next
parasite, virus, pesticide, or other stress to come along.

In any case, strong words such as "abuse" smack of finger wagging.  I feel
that simple education of beekeepers about the unforseen consequences of
dependence upon miticides (whether synthetic or "natural") will be more
readily heard.

Randy Oliver

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