Date: 1/20/2012 6:22:00 PM ( 12 y ) ... viewed 1069 times
Bayer implicated in new deaths of bees
NEW PURDUE STUDY RELEASED
Researchers: Honeybee deaths linked to seed insecticide exposure
January 11, 2012
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Honeybee populations have been in serious decline for years, and Purdue University scientists may have identified one of the factors that cause bee deaths around agricultural fields.
Analyses of bees found dead in and around hives from several apiaries over two years in Indiana showed the presence of neonicotinoid insecticides, which are commonly used to coat corn and soybean seeds before planting. The research showed that those insecticides were present at high concentrations in waste talc that is exhausted from farm machinery during planting.
The insecticides clothianidin and thiamethoxam were also consistently found at low levels in soil - up to two years after treated seed was planted - on nearby dandelion flowers and in corn pollen gathered by the bees, according to the findings released in the journal PLoS One this month.
"We know that these insecticides are highly toxic to bees; we found them in each sample of dead and dying bees," said Christian Krupke, associate professor of entomology and a co-author of the findings.
The United States is losing about one-third of its honeybee hives each year, according to Greg Hunt, a Purdue professor of behavioral genetics, honeybee specialist and co-author of the findings. Hunt said no one factor is to blame, though scientists believe that others such as mites and insecticides are all working against the bees, which are important for pollinating food crops and wild plants.
"It’s like death by a thousand cuts for these bees," Hunt said.
(NaturalNews) A new study by Purdue University scientists seems to confirm what environmentalists have long suspected -- that the massive bee die-offs known as Colony Collapse Disorder are linked to pesticides. Specifically, researchers are pointing to a category of pesticide marketed by the German chemical company Bayer.
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