>This report, on p8, reveals that chlorpyriphos is used around and even on hives to control fire ants: Bingo! Fire ants are a problem in the south and chlorpyiphos is the most used product. Fluvalinate & coumaphos are sold legally for use in the hive on comb. Hell I could have bet money the above would have been found when the comb was tested. I can say from experience that tens of thousands of hives with the levels reported of the above are raising healthy bees. Will researchers please find out what is killing hives and lets move on. Contamination by the above is not when at the level of half the LD50 and in some operations the best hives. >So is that it, all three of the big contaminants were put there by the beekeepers? Happy to be corrected by those who know ... Coumaphos & fluvalinate were sold as a non contaminate of wax by the sellers. Even with what we know now still being sold and put in hives as we speak. FULL PAGE adds in bee magazines and supply catalogs. The fire ant killer has been around for ages and *in my humble opinion* use has risen BECAUSE of the entry problems over fire ants at the California border! In the old days in Florida our best hive was the hive sitting on the fire ant nest. Fire ants would also clean a dead out better than anything. Then came California almonds and the turning of a semi load for a fire ant find or you can pay to have the load unloaded ,cleaned and reloaded at a ridicules price. So now Yankee snowbird beekeepers with their bees in the south spread circles around the hives with fire ant kill instead of doing as the smart southern beekeepers do before shipping to California!(in archives) (and by the way California has had fire ants in many areas for decades). from one who knows! bob *********************************************** 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 Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm