"Do you have in information on funcide/ fungicide or fungicide/ herbicide
interactions? My understanding is that is the major concern in Ammonds.
Chemiacls that are indvivudaly inerert or low hazard to bees combining to
make a pesticide."
I've shared what I learned here about interactions between DMI fungicides and cyano-substituted neonics.
I shared the fact that both may be present during bloom on crops bees pollinate.
What this exercise has taught me is that chemical applications are wildly different depending
on the crop, on the farmer, and on local conditions, and this variation can lead to different degrees
of toxicity to the bees.
"One size does not fit all".
Those who keep bees in pesticide-free areas, and say they have all the same problems everyone else does, don't.
From this work, I have learned that we do not have a standardized agriculture.
We don't know what the chemical metabolites most of the pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides are
within our bees, and we don't know how many of those are toxic!
Each set of chemicals on each crop bees work needs to be understood by the beekeeper in order for them
to be able to minimize potential damage. This goes beyond merely checking on the spray schedule. You need to
know what seed treatments are, what soil drench is being used, and what irrigation chemistry is applied...and when!
You don't just leave it to your doctor to think about drug interactions, do you?!?
You do your homework, especially if you have several doctors each prescribing different drugs!
There are horror stories out there and you don't want to be one of them.
Same thing for our bees.
Many drugs and ag chemicals have different trade names but contain the same ingredients.
This is because many of the products are "cocktails" of different pesticides.
So, is your crop being dosed twice with the same pesticide through different trade name products?
You should find out.
Don't expect the farmer to do that work for you...in many cases he/she is relying on a drug industry advisor
for help in deciding what to apply and when.
If you don't ask, and if you don't study, and then you have problems....well, blame yourself!
I think this is a major pain in the behind, because it means I have to go to every farm in a 2 mile radius
of my hives and find out what they are treating their crops with.
If I don't, and my bees die or fail to thrive...what then?
I can spend a small fortune getting a chemical analysis done on dead bees.
And what good does that do after the fact?
It is too bad we don't know more about these things....in many cases it will be hard to figure
out which chemical combinations are bad news because the research just hasn't been done yet.
As time goes on hopefully more research will be done and treatments will be easier to monitor and figure out.
Christina
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