Welcome to “Tom’s Corner,” a blog about bee decline by Tom Theobald, founding member of the Boulder County Beekeepers’ Association. In July 2010 Theobald authored an article, “Do We Have a Pesticide Blowout,” for Bee Culture magazine. The article triggered a series of events and ignited discussion about the connection between systemic pesticides, specifically clothianidin, and declining bee populations in the United States. Timeline here:
The story continues to unfold…
This will get wide exposure.
Is new form of pesticide to blame for catastrophic decline in honey bees?
Experts believe the sharp decline in Britain’s bee population could be down to an increase in the use of nicotine-based pesticides. – Daily Mail
This two part article from Australia by Marilyn Steiner and Stephen Goodwin is well worth reading.
Part I examines neonicotinoid uses in Australia and problems ascribed to their use overseas, particularly massive losses of honey bees.
In Part II the authors explore the evidence for neonicotinoid impacts on honey bees, the role of governments in regulating pesticides, and the changes required to adequately evaluate their environmental safety.
Pesticide exposure in honey bees results in increased levels of the gut pathogen Nosema
Abstract
Global pollinator declines have been attributed to habitat destruction, pesticide use, and climate change or some combination of these factors, and managed honey bees, Apis mellifera, are part of worldwide pollinator declines. Here we exposed honey bee colonies during three brood generations to sub-lethal doses of a widely used pesticide, imidacloprid, and then subsequently challenged newly emerged bees with the gut parasite, Nosema spp. The pesticide dosages used were below levels demonstrated to cause effects on longevity or foraging in adult honey bees. Nosema infections increased significantly in the bees from pesticide-treated hives when compared to bees from control hives demonstrating an indirect effect of pesticides on pathogen growth in honey bees. We clearly demonstrate an increase in pathogen growth within individual bees reared in colonies exposed to one of the most widely used pesticides worldwide, imidacloprid, at below levels considered harmful to bees. The finding that individual bees with undetectable levels of the target pesticide, after being reared in a sub-lethal pesticide environment within the colony, had higher Nosema is significant. Interactions between pesticides and pathogens could be a major contributor to increased mortality of honey bee colonies, including colony collapse disorder, and other pollinator declines worldwide.
The Purdue Study is beginning to get some traction. I was perplexed by some of the early comments on this article, Honeybee problem nearing a critical point. They still cry for the science even if it is right in front of them.
