Bob writes:
> Those on the list which watched the video did you notice a red face on Mr. Pettis when pressed on the pesticide issue!

* Funny you should mention that. I thought he was embarrassed by the
statement "David Hackenberg says ... "

* To me, statements like "most beekeepers believe the culprit is
neonicotinoids" are embarrassing. It sounds like beekeepers believe
one thing and scientists something else. These scientists are on our
side, you guys!

> Chris Mullin, a Pennsylvania State University professor and insect toxicologist, recently sent a set of samples to a federal laboratory in Raleigh, N.C., that will screen for 117 chemicals. Of greatest interest are the "systemic" chemicals that are able to pass through a plant's circulatory system and move to the new leaves or the flowers, where they would come in contact with bees.  Among the pesticides being tested in the American bee investigation, the neonicotinoids group "is the number-one suspect," Dr. Mullin said. He hoped results of the toxicology screening will be ready within a month.

from "Bees Vanish, and Scientists Race for Reasons"
April 24, 2007
NY Times

* A year has passed -- the researchers were unable to link CCD with
any particular pesticides.

> Diana Cox-Foster, professor of entomology at Pennsylvania State University College of Agricultural Sciences, which received $150,000 from Häagen-Dazs, believes researchers have identified a major cause of CCD. Her team has recently given the mite-transmitted Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) to healthy bee colonies and has seen rapid die-off. Professor Cox-Foster believes that there are other factors together with IAPV are the cause of CCD, such as other viruses, the use of chemicals near colonies and whether the bees are receiving enough nutrition.

from "Ice cream crisis as bees buzz off"
February 25 2008
guardian.co.uk

* * *

A humorous aside:

> The name is not Scandinavian; it is simply two made-up words meant to look Scandinavian to American eyes (In fact, the letter combinations "äa" and "zs" are impossible in all Scandinavian languages). Häagen-Dazs is an American brand of ice cream made by the Hristov family, established by Reuben and Rose Mattus in The Bronx, New York in 1961.  from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haagen-Dazs

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