Archives – May, 2014
From: Mississippi Business Journal
JACKSON — The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has given approval of an emergency exemption that will allow Mississippi beekeepers access to a miticide to help control varroa mite infestations in honeybee colonies.
The product receiving emergency exemption under Section 18 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) is manufactured by BetaTec Hop Products. HopGuard II uses cardboard strips treated with potassium salt of hop beta acids to control varroa mite infestations. The strips are inserted into honeybee colonies or packages of adult worker bees prior to installation in a honeybee colony.
May 9, 2014
Editor’s Note: A new study by academicians from Mississippi State University, the University of Tennessee and the University of Arkansas (Gore, et al) demonstrates the economic value of neonictotinoids used in the Mid-South is available here.
The Gore study belies a report from the Center for Food Safety (CFS), “Heavy Costs: Weighing the Value of Neonicotinoid Insecticides in Agriculture” claiming “that numerous studies show neonicotinoid seed treatments do not provide significant yield benefits in many contexts. European reports of crop yields being maintained even after regional neonicotinoid bans corroborate this finding.”
May 7, 2014
From: BlackSeaGrain
“Why are there problems for bees associated with the growing corn but not canola, when both are planted using neonic-treated seed?”
A great question: asked from the floor during a recent Pollination Guelph panel discussion of which I was a part. The question brought everything into focus, writes Terry Daynard, former University of Guelph crop science professor and associate dean.
The implied assumption – more bee problems with corn versus canola – is quite well supported. Although 70-80% of Canadian neonic seed treatment occurs in Western Canada, mostly with canola, the complaints about neonic-linked bee deaths are almost all from Ontario and Quebec where corn is more dominant.
May 6, 2014
From: OPB
Capital Press
Instead of banning the neonicotinoid class of pesticides, Congress should follow Oregon’s example and use a collaborative and science-based approach to improving honeybee health, the executive director of the Oregon Association of Nurseries said.
OAN director Jeff Stone told a congressional subcommittee that the state’s nursery industry depends on pollinators, but also relies on chemical agents to kill pests and protect plant health.
“This chemical class, when used properly, is vital to the success of our industry,” Stone told members of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Horticulture, Research, Biotechnology and Foreign Agriculture.
May 5, 2014
From: South Dakota Public Broadcasting
By Amy Varland
Pollinators, like honeybees, face a barrage of obstacles every day while just trying to do their jobs – pollenating Earth’s plants and perpetuating their colonies. Keeping the queen bee happy, the hive clean, and the young fed while dodging stressors like pesticides and parasites is no easy task.
Holly Holt is a graduate student in the Etymology Department at Penn State. Holt says the numbers of pollinators, like honeybees, are declining world-wide. She says stressors including pesticides, aggressive agricultural practices, parasites, and pathogens are constant threats that can cause habitat fragmentation in pollinator populations here in South Dakota and across the globe.
May 2, 2014
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