Brian Ames wrote: >I am confused by the title of this post. Yeah, me too. I read Bayer's report and it came across as a well reasoned and accurate reflection of what is known about bee losses. QUOTED MATERIAL: Recent reports of the French Food Safety Agency (AFFSA) have concluded that Gaucho® played little if any role in the massive bee colony losses that occurred in France during the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. These reports conclude that the main factors causing these losses were varroa mites, pathogens (including viruses and Nosema ceranae), nutritional deficiencies, and beekeeper use of unapproved miticides. Bee health monitoring studies in Germany and Canada have also indicated biological factors, rather than pesticides, are the main factors causing colony losses. Bayer's "Response to National Honey Bee Advisory Board Letter on Imidacloprid Registration Review" *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html