Archives – August, 2015
From: NFU | The Voice of British Farming
A new study has been released on the impacts of neonicotinoids. NFU pollinator expert Chris Hartfield discusses the results.
***
In terms of the positives, the study shows how using neonicotinoid seed treatments significantly reduces farmers’ use of foliar insecticide sprays (by about 25%). This is an important finding because, across a dataset covering about 73,000 ha, it shows how use of targeted seed treatments results in fewer pesticide sprays and in principle this should be better for the environment.
August 31, 2015
From: AgProfessional
By Fera Science Ltd.
Farmers who use neonicotinoid seed coatings subsequently use less insecticide to control pests on oilseed rape, according to new research published by Nature today. But the study also demonstrated that more honey bee colonies were lost as the usage of imidacloprid, a first generation neonicotinoid, increased.
***
Published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports the study showed, for the first time, that farmers who use neonicotinoid seed coatings reduced the number of foliar insecticide sprays used to control pests on oilseed rape. Farmers using neonicotinoids also saw significant yield benefits, but not in all years.
August 28, 2015
From: CSIRO | Australia’s national science agency
Honey bees are essential for the pollination of about one third of the food we eat – including fruit, vegetables, oils, seeds and nuts – yet their health and ability to pollinate our crops is under serious threat.
To help tackle this worldwide problem, CSIRO is leading the Global Initiative for Honey bee Health – an international collaboration of researchers, beekeepers, farmers, industry, and technology companies aimed at better understanding what is harming bees and finding solutions to help secure crop pollination.
August 26, 2015
From: The American Bazaar
Edison-powered devices will aid scientists.
By Raif Karerat
U.S.-based technology titan Intel and Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) have announced a partnership that will see the institution use Intel’s Edison postage stamp-sized Breakout Board Kit computer — originally designed with wearable technology in mind — to help monitor bees.
The great hope is that the Edison-powered apparatuses will help provide an insight into colony collapse disorder, otherwise known as the mysterious phenomenon of disappearing bees.
Read Complete Article
August 25, 2015
From: Innovation Trail
By The Allegheny Front
***
“No. 18, there,” Berta says, pointing to a queen with a little florescent yellow tag on it. “That little disc there with the ‘18’ on it, we call those our NASCAR bees because they have numbers on them.”
No. 18 is bit of a science experiment, funded with money from the USDA. This queen’s mother is from a Vermont colony that survived disease and cold winters. And then Berta had her artificially inseminated by Purdue University scientists who were raising bees that demonstrated a unique, mite-fighting grooming behavior.
August 24, 2015
Editor’s Note: Translation from the German via Google Translate. The original text is here.
From: AgrarHeute.com
Bern – Despite the EU-wide moratorium on the use of neonicotinoid Saatgutbeizmitteln has increased in winter 2014/15 bee mortality significantly in key EU rapeseed producing countries.
August 21, 2015
The European Union’s moratorium on neonicotinoid use has failed to protect bees. The latest data from COLOSS (Prevention of honey bee COlony LOSSes), “an international, non-profit association headquartered in Bern, Switzerland” shows that bee losses are increasing in the EU following the ban.
A comparison COLOSS’s July 2015 preliminary results compared with the July 2014 data shows that honey bee losses increased in the EU. For example, bee colony losses in
- Germany, which has by far the largest number of colonies in the EU, soared from 8% to over 20%.
- Denmark went from 7.1% to 10.2%.
August 19, 2015
From: Upworthy
Here she comes to save the day.
Curator: Morgan Shoaff
You know about police dogs and guide dogs. But do you know about bee-saving dogs?
This is Klinker. She lives in Maryland, and she looks like your average dog.
She’s not.
Klinker is the only certified dog in the United States that can sniff out a specific bacteria that is killing our bee populations.
Read Complete Article
August 18, 2015
From: Scientific American
Researchers have learned how bees kick-start immune systems in offspring, and think it could lead to a protective drug
By Ida Emilie Steinmark and ChemistryWorld
Bees use an egg yolk protein to prime their offspring’s immune system against different pathogens, Finnish researchers have discovered. This deeper understanding of how honeybee immune systems function means that a bee ‘vaccine’ capable of protecting pollinators against disease is now potentially within reach.
***
August 17, 2015
From: Southeast Farm Press | Blog
Protecting honey bees is a lot like ensuring clean air and clean water. Everybody supports the cause, but the disagreement arises when it comes time to decide how to solve the problem.
***
More than 100 research studies show that there is no danger to honeybees when neonicotinoids are used as directed. In fact, in a July 17, 2012 memo, the Environmental Protection Agency said it “is not aware of any data that honey bee declines or the incidence of colony collapse disorder in the U.S. is correlated with the use of pesticides in general or with the use of neonicotinoids in particular.”
August 14, 2015
Previous page
