A friend gave me a magazine article which stated that the cause of CCD 
  was Neonicotinoids. I would like to say I took a scientific approach 
and read more than the title, but I gave it back to them and said it 
was not.

The debate is getting  a bit tiresome since it is more heat than 
reason and just about zero science. The finger pointing started with 
Dave Hackenburg and has been propagated by his friends. There has been 
absolutely no indication of any Neonicotinoids found in his hives.

He was told that year that he had high Varroa loads and would lose his 
bees. He did.

A additional pesticide link with CCD came from one Penn State 
researcher involved with the Hackenburg bees and it was a toss off 
comment with absolutely zero science.

 From there we have the German incident, and now it is a given that 
CCD and Neonicotinoids are interlinked.

Zero science, lots of emotion. Anyone reading this list will see that 
any discussion of pesticides yields lots of emotional response but 
little science. Pesticides bad, end of issue.

Let us look at Neonicotinoids. The most interesting thing about bee 
kills from Neonicotinoids is that the symptoms are not like CCD but 
are, in fact, easily seen, measured, and fairly distinct. Medhat did 
some excellent trials of, if I recall, Gaucho and bumblebees in 
greenhouses. His observations were distinct and had little correlation 
with what Jerry has seem with CCD. Even the French beekeepers saw 
their bees and saw they were disoriented, something not seen with CCD.

The German kill was measured, distinct and an obvious pesticide kill, 
not like CCD.

Neonicotinoids are not found in colonies that have/had CCD, but lots 
of beekeeper supplied pesticides are.

So we have all this science which states unequivocally that they are 
not linked, but some say they are.

What evidence is suppled? Colonies are near corn fields. If bees are 
so affected, then so will all the other insects near the field, an 
easy test to perform. Bees are transient, but the other insects are 
there year around. The problem is, there seems to be no die-off of 
insects around corn fields that would indict Neonicotinoids. If there 
were, the anti-pesticide groups would have been all over it in an 
instant.

There is just no science from the anti-Neonicotinoids front. It is 
emotion and supposition, but, thanks to them, CCD is solved. Jerry can 
pack his bags and all those organic beekeeper who lost their bees to 
CCD should stop driving by corn fields.

Bill Truesdell (Full disclosure- I do take a daily aspirin, not Bayer 
but Walmart generic, but then again, Walmart, Bayer... hmmmm both have 
a as a second letter so there is an obvious link.)
Bath, Maine

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