http://www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/Colony-Collapse-Pesticides-B
ees.aspx
Colony  Collapse: Are Potent Pesticides Killing Honeybees?
With a third of honeybee  colonies disappearing due to “colony collapse
disorder,” it’s time to move  into high gear to find a solution.
October/November 2009
By Amanda  Kimble-Evans
Two common pesticides are being linked to colony collapse  disorder
symptoms in honeybees.
EDITED

Now the EPA is being sued by  the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense
Council (NRDC) for withholding  details about the impact of
neonicotinoids — a class of widely used  pesticides — on honeybees and
other pollinators.

While Bayer  CropScience, the primary producer of both pesticides,
maintains honeybee  deaths reported in Europe were caused by unusual
application errors, they  don’t dispute the proven toxicity of their
products. Instead, they maintain  bees do not encounter enough of an
exposure to cause harm. Now even that  assertion is under the
microscope.

A report by Maryann Frazier, senior  extension associate at
Pennsylvania State University, points to a new study  from Italy
suggests honeybees may be ingesting neonicotinoids at levels  1,000
times higher than that in pollen or nectar via water  droplets
expressed from the leaves of corn grown from the  pesticide-coated
seed. This “guttation water” is a common source of liquid  for forager
bees. The concentrations in the droplets were high enough to kill  bees
within five minutes of consumption.

Frazier also highlights a  study from North Carolina University that
found the neonicotinoid Terraguard  and the fungicide Procure had
synergistic affects when combined, increasing  the danger of the
neonicotinoid to honeybees to over 1,000 times its original  toxicity.
The researchers at Penn State are concerned that even sub-lethal  doses
of these pesticides, while not killing the bees, are impairing  their
behavior and suppressing their immune systems.

“Their use has  increased dramatically over the past few years and they
are now the most  widely used group of insecticides in the United
States,” writes  Frazier.

As usage skyrockets, regulation lags behind. Clothianidin was  approved
in 2003 with the condition that Bayer must provide research on  the
chemical’s effects on honeybees. The EPA has received the  research,
but has yet to release all of it — despite requests from the  NRDC,
thus prompting the lawsuit. The EPA has also provided 163  emergency
exemptions for imidacloprid in 26 states, all with little to  no
research on the sub-lethal affects being reported by researchers  in
both the US and abroad. (Emergency exemptions allow unregistered use
of  a chemical for a limited period of time.)

Pesticide regulation loopholes  are making it nearly impossible to
track down the causes of colony collapse  disorder.

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