[Subjectivist]

General Mills is running a free seed campaign to feed wild bees. Just click the link.

http://www.cheerios.com/BringBackTheBees

[dohboi]

I saw a lone bee in my yard today. Rather surprised to even see that, actually, because not too many things are actually flowering there right now.

[Shaved Monkey]

My yard is covered in native and European honey bees.
They are loving the Thai basil flowers at the moment I let it self seed and its everywhere.
When my fox tail palm flowered outside the bedroom window the buzz was beautifully loud ,its just let out another bract so should be flowering in weeks again

[M_B_S]

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/lifesty ... d2090.html

(ANSA) - Florence, August 8 -
Italian beekeepers association UNAAPI warned of a possible "environmental disaster" on Tuesday because the long drought and the intense 'Lucifer' heat wave have upset the nation's bees.
The association stressed that the problem does not just concern honey production, but was a much broader issue for the nation's agriculture and environment.
"There is the risk of an environmental disaster in Italy," UNAAPI said.
"Driven crazy by the climate, the bees don't just not produce honey (2017 production down by up to 80%), but they are unable to provide pollination services to agriculture. "(Because of the drought) the flowers no longer secrete nectar and pollen and plants, in particular trees, are in a perennial situation of suffering.
"The bees are no long sending warnings, but reports of a loss of fertility and incipient desertification". Farmers' association Coldiretti Tuesday said the weather meant Italy's honey production for 2017 will be around 10,000 tonnes, approximately half the average.
*********************

[farmlad]

The problem with the bees is way more than just neonicotinoids, its also vast monocultures Herbicides and pesticides. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yOcXnlY60s&t=23s

[dohboi]

Thanks for that reminder, fl.

[M_B_S]

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 093356.htm

A stinging report: Climate change a major threat to bumble bees
Date:
September 29, 2017
Source:
Florida State University
Summary:
New research is helping to explain the link between a changing global climate and a dramatic decline in bumble bee populations worldwide....

As researchers work toward a better understanding of climate change and its ecological effects, the link between pollinator health and shifting climate processes is becoming impossible to ignore.

"Pollinator species around the world have been declining, but we are still learning about what might be causing declines," said FSU Professor of Biological Science Nora Underwood, a coauthor of the study. "Although not all species are influenced in the same way, I was excited to be part of this study because we now have long-term data that shows changing climate is influencing bumble bees."
*******************

All things are connected .... the question is how?

M_B_S

[vox_mundi]

Bee-Harming Pesticides in 75 Percent of Honey Worldwide

Traces of pesticides that act as nerve agents on bees have been found in 75 percent of honey worldwide, raising concern about the survival of these crucial crop pollinators, researchers said Thursday.

"Overall, 75 percent of all honey samples contained at least one neonicotinoid," said the study, led by Edward Mitchell of the University of Neuchatel in Switzerland.

"Of these contaminated samples, 30 percent contained a single neonicotinoid, 45 percent contained two or more, and 10 percent contained four or five."

The study found that 34 percent of honey samples were contaminated with "concentrations of neonicotinoids that are known to be detrimental" to bees, and warned that chronic exposure is a threat to bee survival.


The frequency of contamination was highest in the North American samples (86 percent), followed by Asia (80 percent) and Europe (79 percent).

The lowest concentrations were seen in South American samples (57 percent).

"These results suggest that a substantial proportion of world pollinators are probably affected by neonicotinoids," said the study.

"The levels detected are sufficient to affect bee brain function and may hinder their ability to forage on, and pollinate, our crops and our native plants."

Neonicotinoids have been declared a key factor in bee decline worldwide, and the European Union issued a partial ban on their use in 2013.

[SeaGypsy]

Time to get real & bankrupt Monsanto. Not only ban their poisons & blackmail seeds, but make them pay compensation to the beekeepers, who have been suffering hugely the last decade or so.

[AdamB]

Through a series of events that seem more like the plot of a Marvel movie than real life, the world’s only colony of gentle killer honey bees, a hybrid of African and European strains, turned the island of Puerto Rico into their home. It all started in 1958, when a group of ragtag African killer bees escaped from an experimental breeding program in Brazil, traveled by ship, and eventually made it to the Caribbean territory in 1994. These very aggressive bees displaced most of the gentle European bees already living there, but eventually the population evened out into colonies of docile but hardy bees. On Wednesday, the scientists behind a new article in Nature Communications explained how this mixed-trait bee population came to exist, noting that their findings offer hope to the global beekeeping community, which has witnessed the disquieting decimation

Puerto Rico’s ‘Gentle Killer Bees’ Could Prevent the Bee Apocalypse

[vox_mundi]

Now that corporations own the government, say goodbye to bees ...

EPA Considers Allowing Bee-Killing Pesticide to Be Sprayed on 165 Million Acres of U.S. Farmland

... The proposal by the agrochemical giant Syngenta to dramatically escalate use of the harmful neonicotinoid pesticide came last Friday, on the same day the EPA released new assessments of the extensive dangers posed by neonicotinoids, including thiamethoxam.

Despite growing scientific and public concern about neonicotinoids, the application for expanded use of thiamethoxam was not announced by the EPA but quietly posted in the Federal Register.

"If the EPA grants Syngenta's wish, it will spur catastrophic declines of aquatic invertebrates and pollinator populations that are already in serious trouble," said Lori Ann Burd, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's environmental health program.

"You know the pesticide-approval process is broken when the EPA announces it will consider expanding the use of this dangerous pesticide on the same day its own scientists reveal that the chemical kills birds and aquatic invertebrates."

Neonicotinoids have long been known to pose serious harm to bee populations. But the new EPA assessments found the commonly used pesticides can kill and harm birds of all sizes and pose significant dangers to aquatic invertebrates.

Thiamethoxam is currently widely used as a seed coating for these crops. This application would allow it to be sprayed directly on the crops, greatly increasing the amount of pesticide that could be used.

The just-released aquatic and non-pollinator risk assessment found that the majority of uses of the neonicotinoid on currently registered crops resulted in risks to freshwater invertebrates that exceeded levels of concern—the threshold at which harm is known to occur.

The EPA did not assess risks associated with spraying the pesticides on the crops it announced it was considering expanding use to on Friday. But it is likely that increasing the number of crops approved for spraying would dramatically increase that risk.

In January the EPA released a preliminary assessment of on-field exposures to thiamethoxam that found all uses of the pesticide—on foliar, soil and seeds—result in exposures that exceed the level of concern for acute and chronic risk to adult bees. But the agency has taken no steps to restrict use of these products and is now considering expanding their use.

... A large-scale study, carried out in close coordination with the Environmental Protection Agency and published in Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry, demonstrates that residue levels in pollen and nectar from thiamethoxam-treated seeds do not harm bees and have no effect on colony survival. The research included individual honey bees—adults and larvae—and 84 honey bee colonies.

"This robust study definitively establishes a threshold below which there are no harmful effects to honey bee colonies," said lead author Jay Overmyer, PhD, of Syngenta Crop Protection. "This information can be used to assess the potential risk of honey bee colonies exposed to thiamethoxam residues in pollen and nectar from all types of use patterns."

(study was run and paid for by the corporation that is being regulated)

Jay Overmyer et al, Thiamethoxam honey bee colony feeding study: Linking effects at the level of the individual to those at the colony level, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (2017)

Pesticides and Poor Nutrition Damage Bee Health

The combined effects of pesticides and a lack of nutrition form a deadly one-two punch, new research from biologists at the University of California San Diego has shown for the first time.

In a study published Dec. 20 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Simone Tosi, James Nieh and their colleagues used honey bees due to their important role as agricultural pollinators and "bioindicators" of environmental quality. The researchers studied how honey bees fared with exposure to neonicotinoids—pesticides broadly used in agriculture—along with limited nutrient sources, scenarios that are commonly found in agricultural areas.

The researchers were surprised to find that bee deaths increased by up to 50 percent more than they expected compared with the individual effects of pesticides and poor nutrition alone. Surprisingly, no previous studies have tested such "synergistic" effects when these threats are combined and amplified beyond the sums of the individual factors.

[dohboi]

Thanks for this, vox. You are a gem.

[AdamB]

Scientists have found what they believe to be the strongest factor leading to the worryingly steep decline of bumblebees… fungicides. The discovery has now been added to the growing list of threats that could potentially lead to the extinction of the essential pollinators. The revelation that common fungicides are having the strongest impact on the insects came as a surprise, as they typically affect mold and mildew, but appear to be killing bees by making them more susceptible to the nosema parasite or by exacerbating the toxicity of other pesticides. Read more Canada fails to protect bees by opting against full pesticide ban – environmentalists The discovery was made during a landscape-scale study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, which used machine learning technology to analyze 24 different factors and how they impacted four bumblebee species. The study

What’s killing the world’s bees? New study claims a surprising culprit

[vox_mundi]

Agricultural Fungicide Attracts Honey Bees, Study Finds

When given the choice, honey bee foragers prefer to collect sugar syrup laced with the fungicide chlorothalonil over sugar syrup alone, researchers report in the journal Scientific Reports

To the researchers' surprise, the bees also preferred sugar syrup laced with glyphosate - the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide - at 10 parts per billion, but not at higher concentrations. And while the bees actively avoided syrup containing the fungicide prochloraz, they showed a mild preference for sugar syrup laced with chlorothalonil at 0.5 and 50 parts per billion, but not at 500 ppb.

The puzzling finding comes on the heels of other studies linking fungicides to declines in honey bee and wild bee populations. One recent study, for example, found parallels between the use of chlorothalonil and the presence of Nosema bombi, a fungal parasite, in bumble bees. Greater chlorothalonil use also was linked to range contractions in four declining bumble bee species.

Other research has shown that European honey bees have a very limited repertoire of detoxifying enzymes and that exposure to one potentially toxic compound - including fungicides - can interfere with their ability to metabolize others.

"People assume that fungicides affect only fungi," said University of Illinois entomology professor and department head May Berenbaum, who led the new research with postdoctoral researcher Ling-Hsiu Liao. "But fungi are much more closely related to animals than they are to plants. And toxins that disrupt physiological processes in fungi can also potentially affect them in animals, including insects."

Also, a 2015 study found that European honey bees and at least one species of bumble bee actually prefer food laced with neonicotinoid pesticides.

The new findings are worrisome in light of research showing that exposure to fungicides interferes with honey bees' ability to metabolize the acaricides used by beekeepers to kill the parasitic varroa mites that infest their hives, the researchers said.

"The dose determines the poison," Berenbaum said. "If your ability to metabolize poisons is compromised, then a therapeutic dose can become a toxic dose. And that seems to be what happens when honey bees encounter multiple pesticides."

Ling-Hsiu Liao et al, Behavioral responses of honey bees (Apis mellifera) to natural and synthetic xenobiotics in food, Scientific Reports (2017)