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posted by chromas on Wednesday September 26 2018, @11:00PM   Printer-friendly

Study: Roundup Weed Killer Could Be Linked To Widespread Bee Deaths

The controversial herbicide Roundup has been accused of causing cancer in humans and now scientists in Texas argue that the world's most popular weed killer could be partly responsible for killing off bee populations around the world.

A new study [open, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1803880115] [DX] by scientists at the University of Texas at Austin posit that glyphosate — the active ingredient in the herbicide — destroys specialized gut bacteria in bees, leaving them more susceptible to infection and death from harmful bacteria.

Researchers Nancy Moran, Erick Motta and Kasie Raymann suggest their findings are evidence that glyphosate might be contributing to colony collapse disorder, a phenomenon that has been wreaking havoc on honey bees and native bees for more than a decade.

Also at Science Magazine.

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 27 2018, @10:56AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 27 2018, @10:56AM (#740736)

    > When we were visited by hornets ...

    Here in the 'burbs we have what are locally called "ground bees", but these are yellow/black striped wasps. They nest in the ground, behind small rock walls around garden beds. If they are close to the house, this is a problem--I know someone that almost died from massive stings when they stepped on a nest. I hate to use poison, so I vacuum them out. Turns out I'm not the only one, there are several videos on YouTube. In my case I have an old smaller shop vac, set the end of the wand near the opening to the nest and leave it on during the warm part of the day when the wasps are active. Might take a few days before the hive is below critical size and dies.

    Cost is low, electricity here is USD $0.12/kwh and the vac uses about 500 watts-- 6 cents/hour. Much cheaper than insecticide packaged for home use.

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