DDT most assuredly is NOT BENEFICIAL to honeybees.

The statement: "An unexpected victim, the honeybee's population decreased 
when the use of DDT was discontinued, while the ban helped the increase the 
number of mosquitoes"  does not mean that DDT was beneficial to honeybees, 
nor is DDT the only pesticide that can be used to control mosquitoes.


Replacement of DDT with organophosphate and other highly toxic synthetic 
insecticides DID impact honey bees -- from the standpoint of fast 
knockdown.  The quote that "Without DDT, the other more toxic pesticides 
applied to crops caused serious damage to bees, wiping out entire 
commercial operations." is incorrect.

First, the ban on DDT, of itself, did not lead to increased use of more 
toxic pesticides.

DDT was one of the first of the complex organic insecticides, appearing in 
WWII, and replacing less toxic or slower acting insecticides like arsenic, 
copper, and sulfur-based chemicals.  The supposed
success of DDT spurred production of more organic insecticides, many of 
them derived from chemical warfare agents, and many faster acting.  Truly a 
case of the sword being made in a plowshare.  And farmers and growers 
wanted fast action.  These chemicals were hard on bees, and continue to 
be.  Not all bee losses are caused by varroa mite, but mites are suddenly 
the scapegoat; just as in the 60s, pesticides were viewed as the all 
encompassing killer of bees.

Continuing, the quote says "Suddenly agriculture was threatening to the 
bees it depended on."

This was nothing new.  The first legal suit against an applicator for loss 
of a commercial operation was in 1915, long before DDT or any of the modern 
pesticides.  Industrial losses of bees were also common, until heavy 
industry cleaned up its act with scrubbers, etc. -- and industrial losses 
of bees continue to this day -- but beekeepers often don't recognize the 
problem for what it is.  We've been involved in legal suits involving 
losses of hundreds of colonies of bees at long-distances from the source of 
the toxic chemical.

DDT may not have the rapid, dramatic knock-down or kill of a chemical like 
Sevin or a Carbamate, but it and its breakdown products get into the wax 
and the bees and stay there for years.  In the late 70s, after DDT had been 
banned for some time, we still saw DDT, DDD, and DDE in bees in remote 
areas of Montana.  In fact, in the late 90s, we still found some traces in 
bees from the east coast.  DDT was banned because it accumulated in living 
system, like the egg-shells of birds.  It was doing the same in bee 
colonies, building up over long periods of time.  What the long term result 
of that build up might be  is unknown, but its not likely to be beneficial.

Jerry

Fortunately, that's been reversed.



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