From: FarmersForum (Ontario)
Six Senate committee hearing presentations on neonics lay blame for bee deaths on many factors
By Patrick Meagher
It didn’t take long for the debate about neonicotinoid-treated corn and soybean seeds to sound hysterical.
Hysteria got a boost last month when Ontario Environment Commissioner Gord Miller announced that neonics are “the biggest threat to the structure and ecological integrity of the ecosystem that I have ever encountered in my life.”
***
Chirs Cutler, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, Dalhousie University: “That’s, I guess, a touchy subject.”
Senator Mercer: That’s why I asked it.
November 17, 2014
The following is the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness’ statement before the Presidential Pollinator Health Task Force on November 12th. A pdf of CRE’s testimony is attached here.
Introduction
We applaud the EPA for initiating the public participation phase of the Task Force’s work in protecting pollinators by holding these public meetings. In doing so, EPA is helping fulfil two Presidential directives, one promoting honey bee health and other being the President’s transparency directive.
I am Bruce Levinson[1] with the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness, a regulatory watchdog located in Washington, DC.
November 14, 2014
From: Bee Informed, a partnership of USDA and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Written By: Heather Eversole
The Maryland lab has been very busy this past month! We temporarily relocated our sample processing while our lab undergoes a remodel. This remodel will permit us to process a larger number of samples.
For the month of October (10/2-10/29/14), numerous samples were processed in the Maryland Bee lab. The lab examined 1448 varroa and 1327 nosema samples overall. This resulted in an increase of 600 (71%) varroa and 540 (69%) nosema samples over the previous month. September 2013 was our busiest month last year, but October 2014 has surpassed that.
November 12, 2014
From: Financial Post
Claire Brownell
At the end of a long day in the field, Ontario beekeeper Hugh Simpson is on his way to a meeting, where he’s looking forward to a packed agenda talking shop. Bee talk. Honey discourse.
And absolutely not about banning pesticides.
***
He and many other beekeepers are more worried that the anti-neonic beekeepers and the environmentalist groups eagerly lining up behind yet another campaign targeting pesticide makers, could be pushing the government down a dangerous path. Especially since just a few changes to the way neonics have been applied in recent years are already showing a rapid rebound in bee populations. Banning the chemicals now could do far more harm to agriculture in Canada than any trouble neonics may be causing.
November 10, 2014
From: The Western Producer
by Robert Arnason
A major Canadian study on neonicotinoids was released in late October with little pomp or circumstance.
Bee experts Cynthia Scott-Dupree of the University of Guelph and Chris Cutler of Dalhousie University concluded that canola grown from seed coated with a neonicotinoid insecticide does not pose a risk to honeybee colonies.
“Although various laboratory studies have reported sub-lethal effects in individual honeybees exposed to low doses of neonicotinoid insecticides, the results of the present study suggest that foraging on clothianidin seed-treated crops, under realistic conditions, poses low risk to honeybee colonies,” Cutler and Scott-Dupree wrote in a paper published in PeerJ, an online scientific journal.
November 7, 2014
Editor’s Note: The Task Force’s Public Meetings will be on November 12, 2014, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., eastern standard time, and November 17, 2014, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., eastern standard time. EPA’s Federal Register notice is available here.
From: Federal Register
SUMMARY
As part of the U.S. Government’s efforts to promote the health of honey bees and other pollinators, the Pollinator Health Task Force (the Task Force) is soliciting stakeholder input on best management practices including pesticide risk mitigation, public-private partnerships, research, education opportunities, pollinator habitat improvements, and other actions that the Task Force should consider in developing a Federal strategy to reverse pollinator losses and help restore populations to healthy levels. EPA and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) will host two listening sessions in order to solicit stakeholder input to the Federal strategy.
November 5, 2014
From: AgWeek
FARGO, N.D. — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service will deliver $4 million for honeybee habitat funding through its Environmental Quality Incentive Program in fiscal year 2015.
By: Mikkel Pates, Agweek
FARGO, N.D. — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service will deliver $4 million for honeybee habitat funding through its Environmental Quality Incentive Program in fiscal year 2015.
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The deadline for applying for this year’s EQIP funding is Nov. 21. U.S. Sens. John Hoeven, R-N.D., and Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., both announced their support of the spending, to help offset effects of colony collapse disorder, which causes 30 to 90 percent of bee die-offs. Bees pollinate $15 billion in crops across the country.
November 4, 2014
From: Herald.ie
By Fiona Dillon
Bee-keepers are being warned to be on alert for the small-hive beetle which could annihilate bee stocks if it arrives in Ireland.
The beetle, which is indigenous to Africa, wiped out tens of thousands of honey bee colonies in the US in the first few years after it became established there – and now it has arrived in Europe.
***
It can cause major damage to combs, stored honey and pollen.
And if a beetle infestation is sufficiently heavy, they may cause bees to abandon their hive.
Read Complete Article
October 31, 2014
From: The Royal Gazette
By Harrison EGN Isaac Sr
The destructive winds of Tropical Storm Fay and Hurricane Gonzalo, which hit Bermuda this month, has caused hundreds of thousands of dollars damage to businesses, Government building, schools, tourist accommodations, visitor attractions, and to personal properties.
***
It was reported earlier this year that during the past six years Bermuda had lost 65 percent of its managed honeybee hives, which is believed to be the result of the dreaded Varroa mite (Varroa destructor), an external honeybee parasitic mite. This mite attaches itself to the bee and sucks what some call the “bee’s blood” which in itself does not kill the bee, but weakens its immune system and renders it susceptible to viruses that are introduced by the mite.
October 29, 2014
Editor’s Note: The following article discusses scientists who are reluctant to discuss the environmental friendliness of neonicotinoids because of threats to their careers from “true ‘believers and zealots’ hype the neonic risk and use ‘their research to make an issue where none exists, or make it larger to garner press for the ego and funds for the lab.'” Fortunately, there are environmental regulators around the world who are willing to evaluate bee health decline based on the best available science. The views of leading environmental regylatory agencies on bees, varroa desctructor and neonics are available here.
From: The Western Producer
October 27, 2014
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