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posted by CoolHand on Friday September 02 2016, @11:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the not-what-we-need dept.

South Carolina County Sprays for Zika, Kills Honey Bees

As Found here:

Following cases of Zika in the area, the county dispersed insecticides through aerial spraying using aircraft. They did not notify local populations, leading to the mass death of area bee keepers' entire population of honeybees.

This seems especially bad, given the context of continuing decline in bee populations:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder

Common Dreams reports

Millions of honeybees are dead in Dorchester County, South Carolina, and local beekeepers say the mass death was a result of the county spraying the area with the controversial pesticide Naled on [August 28] in an effort to combat Zika-spreading mosquitoes.

[...] A single apiary in Summerville, South Carolina lost 2.5 million bees in 46 hives, according to a local resident [...] Kristina Solara Litzenberger.

[...] "Without honeybees, we have no food", Litzenberger added. "Additionally, one can only deduct that if that much damage was caused to the bees, how will this affect people, wildlife, and the ecosystem?"

Beekeepers are supposed to be warned prior to any pesticide spraying, so that they can cover their hives to protect them. But local bee owners say they were not given any warning about Sunday's spraying, according to the local news station WCBD--and this was also the first time the community was subjected to aerial spraying, rather than spraying from trucks.

[...] Naled is a particularly dangerous pesticide, as the Miami Herald reported earlier this month:

Several studies suggest that long-term exposure to even low levels of Naled can have serious health effects for children and infants as well as wildlife, including butterflies and bees, for whom exposure can be lethal. Some studies suggest it might have neurological and developmental effects on human fetuses, including on brain size, echoing the severe consequences that eradication of the Aedes aegypti mosquito that carries the Zika virus is meant to prevent.

[...] The EU banned the chemical's use in Europe in 2012.


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  • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Saturday September 03 2016, @09:09PM

    by captain normal (2205) on Saturday September 03 2016, @09:09PM (#397136)

    As for me it wouldn't have occurred to me to call people in South Carolina "city-boys".

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 03 2016, @11:21PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 03 2016, @11:21PM (#397169)

    I saw an article the other day about the increasing trend of city dwellers as a percent of the global population (already the majority).
    When I think "USA", mostly I think "tract housing".

    We're looking at people who don't understand where their food comes from (besides "the supermarket").
    They clearly don't understand the concept of "pollinators" and the importance of those to food crops.

    .
    Not on the topic of "city boys" but rather WRT "responsible government":

    In Los Angeles County, 3 decades back, there was an infestation of the Mediterranean Fruit Fly.
    (You'd be amazed how many citrus trees there are in residential SoCal; there's even some commercial stuff.)

    The county had a plan to use helicopters to drop "bait", sticky pinhead-sized pellets that they said would eliminate the MedFly.
    When it was revealed that that stuff did nasty things to the finish of cars, there was a big revolt.
    (You don't mess with folks' cars in L.A.)

    Doing things without warning folks who might be affected is anti-democratic.
    As demonstrated by the gov't in the SC county, it's also monumentally stupid.

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