http://www.grist.org/industrial-agriculture/2011-04-06-should-pesticides-be-banned-protect-bees-USDA-scientist-pettis#more


"News of Pettis' as-yet-unpublished study has generated very little press in the United States beyond my coverage. In the United Kingdom, though, it's made quite a splash -- so much so that the USDA scientist got an invitation to address Parliament on the question of pesticides and bees. Pettis addressed Parliament on Monday, and the results were ... odd. He distanced himself from calls to ban neonicotinoids. In an account of his testimony before Parliament, The Guardian quotes Pettis like this: "Pesticide is an issue but it is not the driving issue."

On the other hand, though, he pointed to yet more evidence linking poor bee health to pesticides. According to The Guardian, in his testimony before Parliament, Pettis discussed a new phenomenon being observed by beekeepers: Bees are "entombing" or sealing off some pollen-filled cells in a hive. And when scientists test the sealed cells, they turn out to contain significantly higher levels of pesticides and other toxins than unblocked cells in the same hive.

Here's how Pettis described the phenomenon, according to The Guardian's account:

    This is a novel finding, and very striking. The implication is that the bees are sensing [pesticides] and actually sealing it off. They are recognizing that something is wrong with the pollen and encapsulating it ... Bees would not normally seal off pollen."

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