Archives – October, 2016
From: Tri-State Neighbor
Janelle Atyeo, Tri-State Neighbor Reporter
The state of South Dakota is preparing to implement a new plan for protecting honeybees that focuses on improving communication between beekeepers and pesticide applicators.
Already, all apiaries have to register with the state by Feb. 1 each year. The state also maintains a sensitive site registry with a satellite map that pinpoints where beekeepers have their hives.
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October 31, 2016
From: Manitoba Co-Operator
Mitigation measures implemented in 2014 appear to be working
By Alex Binkley
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The number of honeybee colonies and their level of production has been rising since 2013, according to testimony to the Senate agriculture committee.
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As for three neonic insecticides that are usually portrayed as the villains in bee deaths, Kirby said a preliminary assessment for imidacloprid found no significant risks for honeybees were identified.
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October 28, 2016
From: University of Minnesota
The 10,000-square foot laboratory consolidates lab space, honey extraction, observation hive space, offices and equipment space.
Bee and pollinator researchers at the University of Minnesota are ready to take their research to the next level in a new, state-of-the-art Bee and Pollinator Research Lab. After a multi-year fundraising campaign and building construction, the University takes another step toward discovering solutions every day to protect bees, which in turn will help to protect our food supply and human health.
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October 27, 2016
From: Onward State
By James Turchick
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Grozinger says the loss of honeybee colonies and wild bee populations is caused by pathogens, parasites, pesticides, and reduced nutrition as the diversity of plants around colonies decreases. The Beekeeping Club pointed to an invasive species of parasitic mites they say has weakened the immune system of colonies across the country. By infiltrating the brood — containing bee larvae– the parasites can infect colonies with viruses like black queen cell and deformed wing virus.
October 26, 2016
From: Genetic Literacy Project
Andrew Porterfield & Jon Entine
The Sierra Club, founded by John Muir in 1892 to support wilderness outings and conservation in the American west, is now on a different campaign: scaring the bejeebies out of people to raise money. The once venerable organization, once known for its eco-pragmatism, is twisting the science about bees and pesticides. Literally millions of people who have supported one green organization or event in recent years opened their mailboxes to find a scare letter of epic proportions written by none other than Sierra’s executive director Michael Brune:
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October 25, 2016
From: The Rocky Mountain Goat News
by MIKE PODINA & MONICA MARCU
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Varroa mite infestation seems to be considered by bee specialists as one of the main causes of honeybee colony mortality. Indeed, many of our local beekeepers needed to treat for varroa mites this year, but in August a new and serious threat was discovered.
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Apocephalus borealis is a species of North American parasitoid phorid fly that parasitizes bumblebees and wasps.
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October 24, 2016
Editor’s Note: Translated from German via Google Translate, original text here.
From: Berliner Morgenpost
Global beekeeping is one of the greatest problems of our time. Due to the lack of bees, which fulfill an important function in the pollination of many crops, agriculture generates annual losses in double-digit billions. One of the main factors for beekeeping is the Varroa mite, a bee parasite originally living in East Asia, which was introduced to Germany in 1977. The one-millimeter mites feed on bee-larvae and also transmit pathogenic viruses. Up to 30 percent of the bee stocks are destroyed by Varroa mites each year. Fighting has been quite difficult. If the chemical club is used, the bee peoples are attacked. In the case of organic control agents, such as ant or oxalic acid, treatment success is often only 80 percent. Now a small, strange animal gives occasion for new hope: the pseudo-scorpion.
October 21, 2016
From: Mantioba Co-Operator
Beekeepers say their death losses are falling, but nobody is exactly sure why
By Alex Binkley
Winter bee mortality rates seem to be dropping, according to data submitted to Health Canada by the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists.
The group told the Health Department, that has been heavily involved in a multi-stakeholder study into the issue, that all provinces either saw similar death rates, or lower death rates than the previous several years.
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October 20, 2016
From: Collegiate Times
Aly De Angelus, news staff writer
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added seven species of bees to the nation’s endangered species list on Friday, Oct. 1. Despite popular opinion, Virginia Tech researchers believe that these native-Hawaiian yellow-faced bees do not reflect the status of bees on a global scale, nor should the public be concerned about species extinction.
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Chorba says that in the past weeks, media outlets have skewed their coverage on bees to fit an agenda rather than demonstrating the science that has been provided. Among the many discrepancies, the Hawaiian yellow-faced bees have been referred to as a type of honeybee themselves.
October 19, 2016
From: Farmers Weekly
Large-scale field studies into the banned neonicotinoid seed treatment clothianidin have concluded it is not harmful to bees.
Philip Case
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Researchers tested the composition of the pollen collected by the bees, residue levels of clothianidin in pollen, nectar and honey, colony development of the bumblebees, colony strength, development, honey production and health of the honeybees and the reproductive performance of the solitary bees.
The study showed no adverse effects under field conditions in any of these parameters.
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October 18, 2016
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