On Sat, 12 Jul 2008 10:07:10 EDT, Chris Slade <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>
>In a message dated 09/07/2008 17:53:41 GMT Standard Time,
>[log in to unmask] writes:
>
>Most  commercial apple orchards spray
>insecticide around 14-15 times in a  season.
>
>
>
>If this is systemic, doesn't some end up in the apples?
>


As all  beekeeping is local, I find that earlier statement about commercial apple spraying to be 
completely incorrect for the Wisconsin/Mn region. 

Most large orchards up here use IPM techniques and very few to none use the neonictinoids. The 
systemics are for pests that suck on leaves like aphids. Up here they are secondary pests if at all. 

The main 3 problems for growing apples here is scab (fungus) , coddling moth and apple maggot 
fly. The systemics are not the first or even second choice for these two pests. 

I am qualified to make these claims as I manage 1800 apple trees and participate in University and 
Industry conferences and also do apple pollination for many orchards.

We keep hearing the same nonsense about corn. Around here bees rarely visit corn as we have an 
abundance of flowering plants when the corn is tasseling. If the corn coated seeds was such a 
bogey man - where are the dead or missing bees in the corn belt (MN, IA,NE,IL,IN,MO)? If anything 
the Corn Belt had very few reports of CCD. 

But the Bayer myth lives on and I find it to be the most comforting to those who are heavy into self 
contamination of their own hive's brood nests or at least support the idea-r that beekeepers need 
something beyond the soft treatments in order to stay in business.   

IMO apples are hardly a concern for beekeepers since bees only visit them during bloom and most 
growers are not concerned about insects at bloom - only scab.  

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