As far as I have learned from reading many papers on this subject, the issue regarding neonic effects on bees is nuanced.


The evidence isn't irrefutable but there is enough work to show that Varroa + viruses + neonics = "many" dead bees while Varroa + viruses = "fewer" dead bees.


Pete's analogy between neonic exposure and drinking alcohol is incorrect.  Alcohol hits the hepatic and nervous systems hardest in humans.  Liver cells have an astonishingly high regenerative rate, and liver function in alcoholics is only lethally compromised in extreme cases where the underlying fibrous tissue is destroyed (cirrhosis).  However, brain cells die and they are not replaced.  Cynics would say who can tell, since humans don't use most of their brains anyway.


In bees, neonics kill the neurons and those neurons are not replaced.  Acute exposure means that they die.  Sublethally, their behaviors are altered and lives are shortened because they are operating on "less brains".  This results in "no effect" as measured by some.


Let's not reduce this discussion to a war of wills...nobody is a "winner".   I hope we can continue to converse constructively about the role neonics play in beekeeping.  All sorts of groups are actively trying to raise money and create emotional capital by claiming neonics are wiping out bees.  They don't do us any service by oversimplifying the issue and they are just plain wrong about the acute severity of the neonic problem.  However, we also do not help ourselves (beekeepers) by coming to premature conclusions about the "safety" of the neonic pesticides around bees.  We hear how things were "worse" in the old days of organophosphates.   The new poisons are just as troublesome as the old ones, for different reasons.  It's important to know exactly what they do and what the consequences are/will be.

Christina

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