> Dear Dr Tapparo,
>
> I read your paper "Assessment of the Environmental Exposure..." with
great interest.
>
> I don't see any mention of the fate of the four colonies placed near the
test field.  I understand that there was forager loss, but what was the
impact of the dust upon the colonies--did they survive?
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> --
> Randy Oliver


Dear Randy,
        thank you for your question and sorry for delay.
In our experiment we have never observed the death of the colony. Anyway,
as reported in our previous paper (in attachment), about 400 died bees
(foragers) were found out of the hive 3 h after the end of the sowing
experiment; about 1500 after 24 h.
As for the effects on the colonies, it could be noticed that we carried out
very short time (1-2 h) sowing texts in a limited sowing field. So, total
emission is not comparable with the larger insecticide amount emitted
during the sowing of larger fields. For instance, in Northern  Italy, about
50% of the farmland is used for corn crop, but the fields are 1-2 ha large
and separated by different crops or orchads, often with flowers.

Experiments aimed to assess the hive contamination during the sowing are
currently in progress and the results will be published in the next future.

Best regards

        Andrea Tapparo

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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