All
As others have pointed out, a pesticide dose that would harm a human would
almost certainly kill any bees. Remember, the dose is proportional to body
size. Reason that x amount of a pesticide won't harm a large bumblebee, may
kill some honey bees, and wipes out leaf cutter bees. Of course, there may
also be differences in susceptibility by species.
Mosquito spraying can be a source of bee kills - best thing to do here is to
work with the mosquito control folks -- I addressed their national
association a few years ago. They want to spray when they get maximum contact (when
fogging). They were interested in seeing our bee counter data that showed
that bees mainly fly in daylight hours - during the warmest hours.
Some districts spray during the day, because their employees want to be home
at night. Good districts spray based on the biology/activity of the target
species. Properly done, the control folks would get better success and
reduced risk to bees by proper timing of applications.
As per factors contributing to risk to bees, residual times of pesticides,
etc. -- the best overview for a broad audience is the book on Pollinator
Protection, A Bee and Pesticide Handbook, by Carl A. Johansen and Daniel F.
Mayer. Bit dated, doesn't address neonicotinics, but the principles hold.
And, one final note -- we've looked at pesticides and bees from the early
1970s through the 1980s and 1990s, with our last major, broad spectrum work done
on the east coast in the late 90s, early 2000s.
For that study, we have 8 years of data from 100s of colonies, thousands of
chemical analyses - pesticides, industrial, organic, inorganic, radioactive,
etc.
Jerry
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