> I regret also that this material appears to be on the public
> market that apparently have with no answers at the moment to
> so many basic questions
Well, the (USA) EPA published the document cited below a year ago,
so they have had more than enough time to correct any typos or
errors, and they use phrases like "potential for toxic chronic
exposure to honey bees". EPA documents published under the current
administration have become classic examples of the art of
understatement, so it is reasonable to say that just about anyone
else would say something less charitable.
http://www.epa.gov/opprd001/factsheets/clothianidin.pdf
Here's a few snippets from the document:
Common Name: Clothianidin
Trade Name: Poncho 600
Pesticide Type: Insecticide
Chemical Family: Nitroguanidine subgroup of nicotinoids
U.S. Producer: Bayer Corporation
"Clothianidin has the potential for toxic chronic exposure to honey bees,
as well as other nontarget pollinators, through the translocation of
clothianidin residues in nectar and pollen."
"In order to fully evaluate the possibility of chronic exposure to honey
bees, a complete worker bee life cycle study will be required, as well
as an evaluation of exposure and effects to the queen."
"The fate and disposition of clothianidin in the environment suggest a
compound that is a systemic insecticide that is persistent and mobile,
stable to hydrolysis, and has potential to leach to ground water, as
well as runoff to surface waters."
"Available data indicate that clothianidin on corn and canola should
result in minimal acute toxic risk to birds. However, assessments
show that exposure to treated seeds through ingestion may result in
chronic toxic risk to non-endangered and endangered small birds
(e.g., songbirds) and acute/chronic toxicity risk to non-endangered
and endangered mammals."
A quick search did not yield any reference to any completed study on
honey bees, but I did find one done on bumblebees that claimed "no impact".
Please note that the "nicotinoids" group of systemic pesticides also
includes the far-too familiar Imidacloprid (Admire, Confidor, Gaucho,
Merit, Premier, Premise, Provado...).
"Gaucho", "Poncho"... I see a trend here.
Bayer seems to be talking through their sombrero to the federales.
Putting a "treatment" on seed is nothing but a cheap "value added" for
the seed company, a way to coax a higher price from the farmer for the
same old seed. Clearly, any farmer who practices IPM is not going to
want to buy or apply a pesticide to 100% of his crop, so having it on
100% of his seed is nothing but a waste of money. If the farmer wants
to treat seed for a specific planting, he can do so himself "in the
seed hopper" on his planting rig. Farmers don't want "Weapons of Mass
Malfunction" any more than beekeepers do, and farmers certainly don't
want to pay extra money for them when he does not need them.
This is a key point about IPM, and the reason why local farmers now
ask us to do high-resolution 3D terrain maps of their fields - they
have computerized spreaders and sprayers, and are applying fertilizers
and pesticides in specific doses to individual areas as small as 3
square meters. (A decade ago, the toughest problem anyone dragged
before me was a bailer that had eaten a metal fence post. Now the same
farmers want raster images from satellite data vectorized, just so they
can get a better crop of hay for their dairy herds. The high-tech toys
pay for themselves in a season or two through lower chemical use.)
The good news (for beekeepers) is that seed treatments in general are
being viewed as of questionable value even in the eyes of people who
never met a pesticide they didn't like:
http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/cespubs/pest/articles/200324d.html
http://paulding.osu.edu/AG/hottopics/seedtreatments.pdf
The bad news is that these treatments are being unconditionally
"bundled" into the very useful BT treated "Yield-Gard" corn, just
like those useless software bundles that came with PCs in the 1990s,
consisting of products you had never heard of, from companies
you had never heard of, and never heard from again.
jim (The result of an unorthodox career path,
overused library cards, massive bandwidth,
and an oblique view)
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