3-23 IAN Neonicotinoids and Bees

 What’s the latest with bees and their various maladies? I’m David Sparks with an update for you after this important message. Well we’ve been hearing about colony collapse disorder since 2005 and the story won’t go away. That’s because bees are so critical to our ag economy and the crops that rely on them for pollination.

But last winter, 29 percent of U.S. hives were lost to colony collapse disorder, according to a survey conducted by the Apiary Inspectors of America and the U.S. Agriculture Department. The disorder has been ascribed to everything from a virus, to mites, to pesticides, to poor nutrition, to stress from shipping hives long distances to pollinate crops - or some combination. … and now Environmental groups, such as the Sierra Club, are targeting chemically coated seeds, called neonicotinoids. Here’s Bill Ahaus of the Idaho Honey Industry Association: “What they’re finding is that there are very high levels of these neonicotinoids that are in the bee’s wax. They’re absorbed into the bee’s wax and what happens is that non-toxic chemical builds up in the hive to the point where the concentration is high enough to actually, if not kill them outright, at least weaken their immune systems so they fall pray to viruses.”

Bill says that Washington State University has one of the strongest research programs in the country dealing with honeybees and their associated issues.