Here's a brief summary of the two bee stories and responses from Bayer CropScience. Dave Goulson study: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2012/03/28/science.1215025 GOULSON STUDY SUMMARY: We exposed colonies of the bumble bee Bombus terrestris in the lab to field-realistic levels of the neonicotinoid imidacloprid, then allowed them to develop naturally under field conditions. Treated colonies had a significantly reduced growth rate and suffered an 85% reduction in production of new queens compared to control colonies. Given the scale of use of neonicotinoids, we suggest that they may be having a considerable negative impact on wild bumble bee populations across the developed world. BAYER CROPSCIENCE RESPONSE: Julian Little, spokesman for Bayer Cropscience, criticised Goulson's study because the bees were exposed to imidacloprid in the labaratory, before being placed outside in a natural field environment to feed. "All studies looking at the interaction of bees and pesticides must be done in a full field situation," he said. "This study does not demonstrate that current agricultural practices damage bee colonies." http://tinyurl.com/7n86thg Mickaël Henry study:http://tinyurl.com/cjj64rj MICHAEL HENRY STUDY SUMMARY: Nonlethal exposure of honey bees to thiamethoxam (neonicotinoid systemic pesticide) causes high mortality due to homing failure at levels that could put a colony at risk of collapse. Simulated exposure events on free-ranging foragers labeled with an RFID tag suggest that homing is impaired by thiamethoxam intoxication. These experiments offer new insights into the consequences of common neonicotinoid pesticides used worldwide. BAYER CROPSCIENCE RESPONSE: The French honeybee study, though clever in the way it used microchips to follow the bees, is seriously flawed because the dose of pesticides given to the bees was "really way too high," says David Fischer, an ecotoxicologist at the company's U.S. headquarters in North Carolina. He says the bees were exposed to many times more pesticide than they would encounter in the real world. http://tinyurl.com/7bo6clp Paul Cherubini El Dorado, Calif. *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm