Hi Jeremy,

Of the pesticides that you listed, I'd be most concerned with the
buprofezin in Tourismo.  Off list you reported that symptoms of your kill
were bees that were unable to emerge from their brood cells.  Buprofezin is
a chitin synthesis inhibitor, and its mode of action would fit that symptom
(none of the other active ingredients that you listed would fit that bill).
 Unfortunately, buprofezin is lipophilic.  I suspect that it may be a
problem until the almond beebread is gone.  Not sure as to whether there
would be a residual effect from wax contamination.

Quite a number of beekeepers are reporting problems with almond sprays this
season (myself included).  Symptoms are often different, due to problems
with different products.

The insect growth regulators cause delayed problems in brood, and should
not be approved for bloom spraying in almonds.

But many of us are seeing dead adult bees in front of the hives, or more
importantly, loss of the field force towards the end of bloom (very clear
in my colonies in one orchard, in which I had 48 experimental hives that
I've been grading carefully for strength, and collecting data on mites and
nosema).  Those colonies appeared to have lost much of their adult bee
population late in the bloom period.

This loss of field force would not be expected from the mode of action of
fungicides.  I suspect that the adjuvants (such as organosilicones) or
something else in the tank mixes are the culprit.

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

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