nice post Deknow
i found this data to be at least one nail in the coffin for the idea that self contamination of hives is
a core factor in CCD.
for those interested mainly in the CCD/pesticide data start around 37 minutes (previous is
background and overview) and run to 1 hour
anyhow She presented data that showed brood from CCD hives contained levels of fluvalinate that
were near the LD50 levels.
a weak correlation existed between high fluvalinate and comouphos levels in bee bread and colony
strength
the really interesting data to me is that fluvalinate chemistry has changed since its introduction as
Apistan, to be now almost twice as toxic as the original material. this new version can be toxic at
levels as low as .2 mg/bee according to EPA data.
this gets even more interesting is a chemical that's commonly mixed and sold as a premix with
fluvalinate for labeled Ag uses lowers the LD50 to .0094 mg/bee and is very very toxic to bees.
the implication was that off label use (blue shop rags) could have unintended results. oops!
how many collapsed loads in CA had their annual fall blue shop rag treatment a few weeks earlier
before being shipped west?
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