<<A contigent of beekeepers from France came over just to hear the presentations, including representatives from their National Beekeeping Association. Their comment to us was more or less - 'we banned the neonics and nothing improved. It must be something else'.>>
In fact ‘neonics’ are not yet banned in France. Whoever gave that statement could not have been from the national association, UNAF. Last week I was part of a UNAF delegation to the Prefecture (approx. State administration) of beekeepers from Savoir, Ardeche, and the Rhone (approx. counties) to urge the Minister of Agriculture to do his utmost to obtain a total ban on all ‘neonics’ not only in France but throughout Europe.
The following information is from the UNAF web site, copied today and translated by Google so I have not biased the translation.
<Imidaclopride: The residual nature of this product causes problems of intoxication among the bees. Especially when plants with flowers such as sunflowers, grown following a crop treated Gaucho, beekeepers find during the flowering of the cases of weakening and mortality of their bee colonies.
Proteus: (active ingredient: thiacloprid and deltamethrin - manufacturer BAYER CropScience) new product approved, has been used in France for the first time in the spring of 2010. It is composed of 2 insecticides which a (thiacloprid) is an insecticide from the same family as the Gaucho and the Cruiser; the other is deltamethrin, also very toxic to bees. The Proteus is not a product of seed coating, but it is sprayed on plants. This product is used on cereals, potatoes and beets, but especially rapeseed.
This new molecule is presented by the manufacturer as having systemic action and "displaying a great persistence of action" (45 days). Moreover, on its operating instructions, one can read that this product is 'dangerous for bees' and ' to protect bees and other pollinating insects do not apply during flowering, do not use in the presence of bees. However, even if the rape is processed before flowering with the insecticide product, because of its systemic action, the plant becomes highly toxic to pollinators who visit it.
All neonicotinoid insecticides are dangerous for the bee in the sowing stage, when flowering, but also during the phenomenon of guttation. Studies have shown that young plants grown from seeds coated with these insecticides secrete a highly toxic liquid for pollinating insects. It takes a few minutes for the bee having drunk this drop to die.>
I think the position of our National Association is clearly not as quoted.
Cruiser OSG was only banned in Juin 2012 and then only partly. It can still be used on fruit. Régent TS and other products containing fipronil were last used in 2004 but fipronil is not a neonic so what were these “representatives from their (our) National Beekeeping Association” referring to and when was this?
Bil, France
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