Hello All,
Bob, thank you for that post.
I for one, would like to see the complete letter. The movie, Nicotine Bees, though badly
put together, is a powerful indictment of the use of neo nicitinoids. It has caused me
to research imidacloprid more thoroughly. Imidacloprid must be the most toxic
substance on the planet for honeybees. If you refer to a report on the properties
of imidacloprid by Fossen for the California Department of Pesticide Regulation at
http://www.cdpr.ca.gov/docs/emon/pubs/fatememo/Imidclprdfate2.pdf
you will see that the acute lethal dose , LD50, for a honey bee is only 8 nanograms.
There is only one other pesticide listed on an extensive list of pesticides by the
University of Florida
(http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/aa145)
that has a lower LD50 and that is a substance (TEPP used as a wood preservative)
which has been discontinued.
The 8 nanogram number can be put into perspective if we calculate what that
means on a nectar concentration level. A typical single flight nectar load of a foraging
honey bee might be 40 milligrams. The 8 nanogram LD50 lethal dose would occur if
the imidacloprid content of the nectar is only 200 parts per billion. The situation is much
much worse than that however. Even if the nectar concentration were to drop to much
lower numbers, the bees can still bring that nectar back to their nest and start concentrating
it in the honey comb before feeding the young developing larvae.
And the situation then gets even worse. The Fossen report further states that "chronic"
LD50 values (meaning consumption of imidacloprid over an extended period of time) ranges
from 0.1 to 1 nanogram per bee or in other words down to 1/80 of the acute LD50 dose.
This is a nectar concentration of only 2.5 parts per billion.
And then the situation gets even more worse, because we also have reports of the
neurotoxicity of imidacloprid affecting honey bee brains and ability to find their way back
to the nest at concentration levels much less than the lethal dose levels. This may be at
even lower, essentially undetectable, concentration levels but is still under investigation.
The movie made a good case for an association between CCD and neo nicitinoids but it
seems obvious even without that association that these most-dangerous-to honeybee chemicals
must be removed from use by homeowners and professionals alike.
Imadacloprid has become one of the world's most widely used pesticides. It is everywhere
, from use as general sprays in products like Admire, to coatings on GM seed corn, and to grub
control products like Grubex. The USDA, in it's infinite wisdom, is going to inject this chemical
into trees endangered by the Asian Long Horned Beetle infestation in the Worcester area.
There are already reports that this type of use can kill honey bees. There are already reports of
the potential for this systemic, and long lived, pesticide to enter into and contaminate the ground
water. If our Town of Carlisle, MA were to resume chemical treatments of municipal ball fields
I understand that the chemical of choice for grub control would be imidacloprid. It is almost surely
in use by professional lawn services in our Town. It may be in use at a State supported farm in
our Town.
It needs to be taken out of the picture and replaced with something that results from a lengthy and
thorough process of testing- not just by the EPA, not just by the USDA- but by beekeepers and growers
who are not corrupted by money from the Agricultural-Industrial-Complex that we are all dependant on.
Ernie Huber
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