>Garret, please do not put words into my mouth!<

Randy please except my apology. I will try to think more clearly about what I am trying to convey in the future.

How can we conduct research looking at the effects of pesticides on honeybees without also looking at winter survival? Looking at the trial results, there doesn't appear to be a significant difference between the two groups but they all crashed before going through the winter. From a non scientific point of view this is terrible.  What we see is a bunch of die outs. Nobody doing pollination could survive in the business  for long with colony losses like that.

 Progressing through the other crops the bees did as expected with what ever sprays that were applied so what does that tell us? That they are also safe? In my view 12 months or longer would be better. You can not have all your hives die after the trial end date and claim success.  It’s misleading.
Even at the end it seems that the mites get the blame because they are the end result when it could also be taken that the mite may have been a symptom of the previous eight months.

I have personally seen hives that have not gone to pollination that had mite loads so high and deformed wing bees piling four inches deep outside the entrances in the fall  that you could not  have any hope of them surviving more than a week, go through two more winters while taking splits off of them each year.  Sending them to just one crop for pollination I’m sure that would have done them in. So is it the mites or the pesticides. I think we know that mites are not going away so what can we do to reduce stress on the bees. I can think of two things that bee keepers can control, which is nutrition and reduce pesticide exposure.

Science does not always give a clear answer even though it may appear clear.

I know it is up to the EPA to set the bar but do you think current research methodology still applies to the new chemicals? Seems that it should evolve to keep pace with the changes in the way these new systemic pesticides work.

I think it is best to be wary.

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