UN Warning: Collapse of Bee Colonies Now Global – Part 2

Part 1
Part 2 –

Colony Collapse Disorder

In Japan, 25 percent of the beekeepers have experienced sudden losses of their bee colonies, and in Africa, beekeepers report signs of the phenomenon known as “colony collapse disorder”.

When collapsing bee colonies are accompanied by a “lack of dead bees”, this event has been associated with “Colony Collapse Disorder”(CCD), in which disoriented honeybees die far from their hives.

David Hackenberg, former president of the American Beekeeping Federation, is part of a leading team of beekeepers and experts who claim neonicotinoids are the cause of CCD. “

Bayer Connection

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) sued the Environmental Protection Agency after it failed to release Bayer’s underlying studies on the safety of its neonicotinoids (pesticides)” a class of neurotoxins that kill insects by attacking their nervous systems. Under pressure, the EPA finally relented.

Neonicotinoids are nerve poisons that mimic the effects of nicotine. “Imidacloprid, the most widely-used neonicotinoid, is different than other insecticides because it enters the pollen and nectar of the plant, not just the leaves (this is also what makes the chemical so good at its job).

Hackenberg describes bees under the influence of neonicotinoids as “drunk” and “disoriented”. If neonicotinoids affect the honey bees’ ability to remember how to get back to their hive, says Hackenberg, then it makes sense why the dead bodies are never found.

The EPA approved neonicotinoids because the agency claimed the amounts found in pollen and nectar were low enough not be lethal to the bees, despite studies showing that at low doses, the neonicotinoids “have sublethal effects that impair bees’ learning and memory”.

Bayer has consistently blamed CCD on viruses, fungus, or parasites. In 1999, after millions of honey bees exhibiting CCD symptoms began disappearing, the French government implemented a nationwide ban on imidacloprid-based pesticides; Bayer denied the connection, claiming only sublethal doses of imidacloprid make it into the nectar and pollen that bees consume and carry back their hives.

According to Business Insider, Dr. Diana Cox-Foster, professor of entomology and insect biochemistry researcher at Pennsylvania State University, has done extensive toxicology sampling of bees, wax, and pollen taken from hives that experienced dead-outs associated with symptoms of CCD. Her team found that on average, anywhere from 6 to 35 different chemicals compounds were in a single hive.

“The pesticides bees are bringing in from pollinating represent all different chemicals that we use in agriculture, yards, even inside our homes,”said Cox-Foster. “In combination, some of these mixtures of chemicals may cause increased toxicity to bees that are not apparent when found individually”.

Business Insider, Dina Spector, notes there is a general consensus that bees are suffering from an assault of many different factors that combined, weaken bees’ immune systems, rendering them susceptible to viruses.

EPA Leaked Memo on Clothianidin

Clothianidin, an insecticide developed by Bayer, is among the neonicotinoid class of neurotoxins and is banned in Germany, France, Italy and Slovenia.

Clothianidin has been widely used on US corn since 2003, and is “taken up by a plant’s vascular system and expressed through pollen and nectar”

Clothianidin was first given conditional registration for use by the EPA in April of 2003, pending the completion of an additional study which was finally completed in August of 2007.

In April 2010, clothianidin was granted an unconditional registration for use as a seed treatment for corn and canola from which Bayer profited $262 million in sales in 2009, despite a leaked EPA internal memo [pdf] revealing that the agency’s own scientists considered clothianidin highly toxic to honey bees.

Based on the memo, Beekeepers and activists have asked the EPA to reverse its clothianidin approval. Other crops commonly treated with clothianidin include canola, soy, sugar beets, sunflowers, and wheat” among the most widely planted crops. And Bayer is now petitioning the EPA to register it for use with cotton and mustard seed.