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They are among America's busiest workers but they've been declining sharply in recent years due to various factors, including pesticides, mite infestations and loss of genetic diversity. Now Faith Karimi writes at CNN that President Obama has created a task force to address the issue of rapidly diminishing honey bees and other pollinators. "The problem is serious and requires immediate attention to ensure the sustainability of our food production systems, avoid additional economic impact on the agricultural sector, and protect the health of the environment," Obama said in a memo was sent to Cabinet secretaries and agency heads.
Friends of the Earth says that the US needs to immediately ban the use of neonicotinoids, a class of pesticides chemically similar to nicotine that has been linked to bee deaths. "The administration should prevent the release and use of these toxic pesticides until determined safe," says Erich Pica whose organization is conducting a campaign and has collected more than half a million petition signatures asking Home Depot and Lowe's to stop selling plants treated with neonicotinoids (neonics). So why isn't the US moving more quickly to ban neonics? Neonics play "a major role in pest management for pest control, agriculture and the ornamental plant protection industries. They serve as a group of highly effective insecticides with low risk to people and birds, which can be applied systemically to the soil," notes a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension blogger. This is a safer, better pesticide than many alternatives.
Another reason to hold off on a ban: There are still doubts that neonics are the principal cause of bee colony collapse. "In other words, while neonics might be one of the precipitating causes, they might not be the principle cause of colony collapse disorder (CCD) in the US and Europe," says David Clark Scott. "Saving the honey bees may require a more complex solution than banning one group of insecticides. And it may require more investigation into other possible causes of CCD, including parasites, viruses, climate change, bee nutrition, lack of genetic diversity and bee keeping practices."
(Score: 4, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Monday June 23 2014, @06:11PM
You have a good idea there - but there is a problem. It seems that no bees are safe from the stuff. I thought that I read something recently about carpenter bees being more immune than most other bees - but I can't find that again. But, "more immune" didn't translate into "immune" - it simply took more of the neonic to affect them.
Basically, the neonics are capable of killing off all pollinators. We would gain nothing from allowing the honey bee monoculture to die off, if all other pollinators were killed off as well.
Those bird species that pollinate flowers are also susceptible to neonics - primarily humming birds.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 24 2014, @01:41AM
> I read something recently about carpenter bees being more immune than most other bees - but I can't find that again. But, "more immune" didn't translate into "immune" - it simply took more of the neonic to affect them.
Probably because carpenter bees are big-ass mother-fuckers. I never even heard of them until I moved to the south and now I've got tons of them nesting in the wood on my dilapidated (and soon to be replaced) deck. They aren't really aggressive (the males are, but they don't have stingers, so it is all show). But I've hit them head on with bug spray that kills wasps in 30 seconds and these guys barely even notice.
Downside of using carpenter bees as pollinators - they don't have hives, just solitary (and occasionally co-operative) nests with one female plus 10-20 babies.