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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 31 May 2012 10:38:31 -0400
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< [log in to unmask] writes:

The idea  that surfactant use in herbicides is new is false. This is from  
1950>
 
Surfactants are used in both herbicides and insecticides.  
 
Any pesticide applied in liquid form almost certainly has a  surfactant 
added.  We've seen some discussion here on Bee-L of various  uses of 
surfactants: cleaning (basically its soap), wetting, dispersing,  emulsifying, 
foaming, anti-foaming.  Snoop gas leak detector bubbles when a  gas passes through 
it.  Photographers who print pictures using wet  chemistry add it to their 
processing chemicals so that they spread uniformly  over the surface of the 
film and paper.
 
Back in the 60s, the conventional advice was that surfactants were added  
as wetting solutions.  They themselves posed little risk to bees  (i.e., 
toxicity), but if a spray application occurred just before or after a  heavy 
rain, puddles posed some increased risk of drowning of water  gathering bees.  
The surfactant alters the surface tension of the  water, making it more 
likely that some bees couldn't get out - if they fell  in.
 
The comments on Bee-L about the Tucson  lab's paper on use of fire  
fighter's foam wasn't in my mind clear about the reason for this  paper. 
 
 If a truck carrying bee colonies overturns, what it the quickest way  of 
controlling the situation without severely contaminating the salvageable bee  
equipment, especially the combs?  Eric E. came up with the  recommendation 
to knock down the bees that couldn't be gathered up using the  relatively 
'non-toxic' foam available to most Fire  Departments.  The foam knocks bees 
out of the air by drenching  them and drowning them (the reduced surface 
tension allows more water to  enter the spiracles).  But, the idea of using foam 
was that you could  rinse the equipment (combs) and re-use after the 
incident.  That paper  should be made available to every fire department and 
highway patrol agency in  the US - its almost universally forgotten or unknown by 
First Responders.
 
Finally, I've known beekeepers and researchers who routinely kill every  
plant in a bee yard.  One 2500 colony MT beekeeper's yards were  just bare 
earth - however, his honey production records over several  decades were some 
of the highest I've ever seen documented.  Personally, I  don't like working 
in a dirt patch; but he reasoned that vegetation in front of  the hive 
slowed up the flight of bees coming and going from the entrance, which  in turn 
could reduce numbers of forays per day.
 
Jerry
 
 
 
 

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