>But nosema is considered by some to be a serious contributor. It is also a > fungus of a type (microsporidian). Absolutely true, Stan! But the mode of invasion by nosema is entirely different than that of the external fungi, and not affected by the behavior of grooming, which is what is affected by imidacloprid. And yes, nosema infection may be increased by exposure to imidacloprid, although the study that you cited, and all others that have looked for a correlation, give mixed results. The other thing is that any effect upon nosema by any particular pesticide must be put into perspective--only one study that I can think of tested more than one pesticide, and none compared the effects miticides or plant alleleochemicals. Without such a context, it is difficult to put any potential nosema/imidacloprid interaction into perspective. BTW, Nosema ceranae does not need any pesticide to be a problem. I cannot recall any field study to date that suggested a link between nosema infection and neonic exposure. I'm not saying that it couldn't happen. But I am suggesting that if it were a predictable phenomenon, that it would have been easy to spot by now. -- Randy Oliver Grass Valley, CA www.ScientificBeekeeping.com *********************************************** 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