This is a continuation of the honeybee problem facing the United States and other countries right now:
Here is a link that is provided by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The link in PDF format is a fact sheet for a pesticide called Clothianidin which is in a subclass of pesticides known as neonicotinoids. The major US producer of this chemical is the Bayer Corporation which also produces for Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Germany, Hungary, Mexico, New Zealand, and the UK, which uses this pesticide to treat seeds for corn and canola. This is the same company that makes Aleve, Alka Seltzer, and of course Bayer Aspirin. The product name for its Clothianidin use is called Poncho as it will be cited below in the excerpts.
Colony Collapse Disorder is also being reported in Canada and in Europe…go figure.
Quoted from the Bayer Corporation web site’s News Release in 2003:
“Clothianidin is a new active ingredient in the chemical class of neonicotinoids. Poncho as a seed treatment offers an extended and highly consistent efficacy at low application rates against chewing and sucking insects under diverse climatic and soil conditions. Due to its high root systemicity it is an excellent tool for the protection of the vulnerable kernel and the young seedling.
Poncho offers a new dimension in pest control in maize. The unique seed applied control of corn rootworms (Diabrotica spp.) and cutworms (Agrotis spp.) combined with the control of all major secondary pests is setting a new technical standard for maize production in the USA. In canola, clothianidin is highly effective against the major pest, flea beetle”
Quoted from EPA science fact sheet on Clothianidin:
“Available data indicate that clothianidin on corn and canola should result in minimal acute toxic risk to birds. However, assessments show that exposure to treated seeds through ingestion may result in chronic toxic risk to non-endangered and endangered small birds (e.g., songbirds) and acute/chronic toxicity risk to non-endangered and endangered mammals. Clothianidin has the potential for toxic chronic exposure to honey bees, as well as other nontarget pollinators, through the translocation of clothianidin residues in nectar and pollen..In honey bees, the effects of this toxic chronic exposure may include lethal and/or sub-lethal effects in the larvae and reproductive effects in the queen.”
Clothianidin: Neonicotinoid and Honeybees
Now could this be the link that is causing up to 95% losses in honeybees in parts of the nation? Bee keepers in 25 states have declared to have colony collapse disorder. Its time our scientists officially figure out the root cause of the deaths. According to the data, this is a possible cause to the deaths, but no studies have recently been released to provide supportive evidence of this.
