Once again suspected misapplied pesticide
Causes kill of bumble bees in Oregon state.


FYI
Medhat





From: Statesman Journal
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/tech/science/environment/2014/06/18/bumblebee-die-eugene-investigation/10804135/
Bumblebee die-off in Eugene under investigation
Tracy Loew, Statesman Journal 7:24 a.m. PDT June 19, 2014

Oregon regulators are investigating the first mass bee die-off of the year.
Residents of a north Eugene apartment complex found sidewalks littered with dead and dying bees on Tuesday, said Rose Kachadoorian, pesticide regulatory specialist for the state Department of Agriculture. The residents said trees at the complex had been sprayed on Monday.
An ODA investigator was at the site Wednesday collecting bees, tree leaves and flowers for testing, Kachadoorian said.
"We will consider this a number one priority," she said.
The bees may have died from misapplication of pesticides, but there could be natural causes as well, she said.
The incident comes during "National Pollinator Week," so designated by the U.S. Senate seven years ago to raise awareness that bees, butterflies and bats are necessary for 90 percent of flowering plants to reproduce.
Pollinators are responsible for one out of three bites of food that we eat, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says. And both native and domesticated populations are declining.
The incident also comes exactly a year after 50,000 dead bumblebees were found in a Wilsonville Target parking lot, one of three incidents last summer where a Portland-area company misapplied pesticides, killing pollinators.
All of the cases involved neonicotinoids, a class of pesticides that can harm bees if used improperly.
The Wilsonville die-off, one of the largest recorded nationwide, spurred calls for tighter restriction of neonicotinoid pesticides and prompted the Oregon Legislature to form a task force to study improving pollinator health and avoiding similar incidents.

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