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Beekeeper charges pesticide abuse, leaves
Arkansas River Valley
By Deborah Frazier
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
Colorado's largest beekeeper has pulled his winged
pollinators out of the
state's melon-growing region after suspected pesticide
abuse killed about 10
percent of his troops last month.
The decision potentially could cut Rocky Ford melon
production 25 percent.
"I don't want to hurt the melon growers, but I'm not
going to put them back
unless we can get protection," said Lyle Johnston of
Rocky Ford. He
estimated the loss at $30,000 to $40,000.
Johnston put 1,000 hives at six locations near Fowler,
in southeast Colorado,
locations he has used safely for 20 years. An aerial
sprayer applied
pesticides to a nearby alfalfa field without warning
Johnston.
The sprayers are supposed to notify beekeepers of
their plans so the hives
can be moved. A hive contains 50,000 to 60,000 bees.
"The bees were upset and mean," said Johnston, who
said winds carried the
toxic chemicals to his hives. "The bees attack you. I
knew it was pesticides
from the dead bees on the ground."
In the Arkansas River Valley near Rocky Ford, growers
sell about $2.6 million
of cantaloupes a year and pick up extra money from
honeydews and
watermelons. Melon pollen is sticky and wet and not
easily carried by wind,
so growers rely on bees to pollinate.
Growers credit Johnston and his bees with a 25 percent
boost in yield.
Statewide, bees add an estimated $17 million a year to
crops. Johnston
hauls his bees all over Colorado, California and New
Mexico.
"If he doesn't come, it could hurt us," said Gene
Hirakata of Hirakata Farms,
a major melon producer in Rocky Ford. "He was the only
beekeeper left. We
used to use insects and ladybugs, but sprays have
killed most of them."
This isn't the first time Johnston has lost bees and
threatened to pull out.
Last year, he said, he lost about 700 hives near Lamar
when pesticide from a
neighboring cornfield drifted into the hives. The
culprit was never found.
In 1996, he claimed another loss because of
pesticides, but state tests found
no trace of chemicals in his hives or bees.
Johnston, who has about 2,800 hives, isn't the only
beekeeper to complain
about bee deaths. He's one of only 30 remaining
commercial bee operations
in the state. There are about 100 hobbyist beekeepers.
In 1990, Colorado had 55,000 bee colonies and produced
3.5 million pounds
of honey. By 1998, there were only 27,000 colonies
producing 1.9 million
pounds of honey.
Pesticides aren't the only problem, said Chuck Hudson,
head of market
statistics at the state agriculture department.
Beekeepers also are battling a
parasite mite infection that killed about one-third of
the bees in 1997.
"But we can't blame it all on the mite," Hudson said.
The mites have been
around for 11 years and usually weaken the bees but
don't usually kill them.
Most bees in Colorado have mite infections,
researchers have found.
One factor that isn't a problem is the long-feared
invasion of aggressive
Africanized honey bees, sometimes called killer bees.
Colorado's winters
have kept them out of the state, he said.
Last year, the Colorado Department of Agriculture
received 37 complaints
from beekeepers about pesticide deaths; 14 resulted in
investigations.
Janet Jackson, a department spokeswoman, said
penalties for errant aerial
applicators included warning letters, canceled
licenses, fines and injunctions.
"We'll do anything we can to stop any kind of
pesticide misapplication,"
Jackson said.
In 1997, the state agriculture department investigated
conditions in 1,259
hives statewide, sampling dead bees, plants in the bee
yard, mite treatment
practices and chemicals in the hive. Montana
cross-checked the results.
The results indicated a few instances of pesticide
poisoning, but also one
case of bee starvation, several cases of severe
overuse of the antibiotic used
to treat mites and one instance of locoweed poisoning.
Johnston said the agriculture department has tried to
blame beekeepers for
the deaths. Beekeepers have now limited the department
to testing only for
pesticides.
So this year, agriculture experts gathered samples
from Johnston's hives,
vegetation in the area and plants in the field. Dead
bees were also collected.
No results are available, but the deaths are under
investigation, she said.
That's not enough for Johnston.
"If I had killed $30,000 worth of cattle, I'd be
behind bars," Johnston said.
"Why is it that the applicators can get away with it?"
Johnston and the other Colorado beekeepers aren't
alone.
"Pesticides have been a problem nationwide for years,"
said Troy Fore,
executive director of the American Beekeeping
Federation. "Farmers have to
control pests, but there are chemicals that are less
harmful.
"And, there are ways of applying pesticides that are
less harmful."
June 20, 1999
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