>Can youbring us up to date on this Randy?

Hi Dick,

The Tucson lab has run a few trials, and is gearing up to really address the
issue of the effects of fungicides upon bees.  I've only seen enough data to
date to raise a big red flag.  Not all has been published yet, so can't
share some.

Here in Calif almonds, fungicides are causing problems to colonies during
and after bloom.  Last year I observed sudden depopulation of the field
force after fungicide spraying, as compared to what turned out to be control
colonies that I moved out the week before to prunes.

Ruben Alcaron of the Tucson lab has documented the toxicity of fungicides to
brood, as Eric Mussen did a few years ago.

Some queen producers, who have traditionally (as I have) used combs of
almond pollen in the cell builders have had major problems.

Some have had major bee kills when a fungicide interacted with a miticide.

As far as the effect within the bee gut, don't know.  I'm not clear as to
how much effect fungi actually have within the gut.  Note that bees of
foraging age digest very little, if any, pollen--they depend upon jelly from
nurse bees.  However, fungi do have major effect from the moment that pollen
is packed into pollen loads, and then again after lactic acid fermentation
in the bee bread.

A question that I raise in my article in print is whether the fungi are
critical for converting the sterol sitosterol in pollen into the 24
methylene cholesterol critical to broodrearing and bee health.  Citations
for all the supporting research will be in the article.

My fear is that the focus by some beekeepers upon the neonics may be
diverting our attention away from a proven serious threat to colony health.
BTW, the neonics did not have synergy with several pesticides tested.

Randy Oliver

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