Bee News
Bee News 2
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Mar 14 Last month, a judge considered those same questions and issued an injunction to immediately stop the California Department of Food and Agriculture from using chemical pesticides. This injunction should finally prompt significant changes in the state’s disturbing “we spray, you have no say” policy. |
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Mar 13 If this topic is of interest, here are two TEDx talks on regenerative agriculture that may be of interest to you: https://youtu.be/QfTZ0rnowcc and https://youtu.be/qRJ0y9LMhI4 |
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Mar 12 |
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Mar 12 Now, a Quebec research team has made some disturbing findings, including how the pest killers might affect unborn babies during pregnancy, and how they play a role in fuelling breast cancer. Elyse Caron-Beaudoin, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Montreal's School of Public Health, says while neonic pesticides have passed tests related to their toxicity in order to be approved for use in Canada, no one has looked at the long-term effects of these chemicals on human hormone production. |
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Mar 10 |
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Mar 08 The study says 18% of saproxylic beetles – which depend on dead and decaying wood for some of their lifecycle – now exist on a conservation plane between “vulnerable” and “critically endangered”. |
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Mar 06 This week’s events will mark the first time that the science used to justify certain pesticides will be analyzed under oath for all to see |
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Feb 28 The conclusion, based on analysis of more than 1,500 studies, makes it highly likely that the neonicotinoid pesticides will be banned from all fields across the EU when nations vote on the issue next month. The report from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), published on Wednesday, found that the risk to bees varied depending on the crop and exposure route, but that “for all the outdoor uses, there was at least one aspect of the assessment indicating a high risk.” Neonicotinoids, which are nerve agents, have been shown to cause a wide range of harm to bees, such as damaging memory and reducing queen numbers. |
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Feb 28 The Feb. 20 ruling comes as global scientific evidence against the use of neonicotinoids mounts: a study published on Feb. 25 in Environmental Science and Pollution Research concluded that the insecticides are, for the most part, useless and ineffective. |
Theft of Beehives - North Oxfordshire
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Feb 28 40 hives were taken Near Fringford/Bicester, between 17th and 24th February 2018 - pictures above taken before and after theft… The bees were overwintering prior to being moved for pollination and were hidden from general view, the hives measure about 18” (500mm) cubed and weigh about 40lb/20kg each, they were only accessible across a field margin and would have required a substantial vehicle to move them (perhaps a 4x4 and trailer). The bees would not have been happy at being disturbed and would have required some skill to move them. The thieves will need care in relocating them as they will have a strong presence – they will require the space of at least 10 pallets and will need to be some distance from people – a town garden or traveller site would not be ideal. Unless cared for they will become an increasing nuisance as the spring progress as they run out of space and swarm. They have distinct markings and can be identified if found. Please be vigilant and let Bicester Police or me know if you are aware of any suspicious activity relating to this – you can contact us via email - Twitter– @ElmTreesBees, at home – Ashanti – Hill Street Brackley NN13 6AL – or phone 01280 703151 / 07759824777. Thanks - Tony Manton & beekeeping family |
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Feb 27 “Over-reliance on systemic insecticides for pest control is inflicting serious damage to the environmental services that underpin agricultural productivity”. “This new research is exciting because it’s proven the existence and feasibility of a number of alternative, integrated pest management models—which are far better for the environment without increasing costs or risks for farmers.” |
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Feb 26 This video shows you how to make a monitoring trap for Asian hornets and is designed to complement our step-by-step fact sheet. |
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Feb 23 |
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Feb 23 In addition, 16 environmental and conservation groups have collected more than 100,000 public comments urging the agency to rein in what they view as “rampant overuse” of neonicotinoid pesticides, which they allege is a leading cause of pollinator population declines. |
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Feb 23 |
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Feb 22 These bees are highly social insects that have one queen and a thousand worker bees who live together in a protected place. Usually, that place is a hollow tree. The bees inhabit the northern parts of Australia, although on the east coast they reach a bit further south than Sydney, and occur in other tropical parts of the world, while the Australian species are much smaller than European honey bees. |
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Feb 22 Our aerial bombardment followed a commercial bee keeper placing 5 large hives nearby. With 50,000 to 80,000 bees per hive, they could be making in excess of one million flights per day potentially dropping their load soon after each departure. |
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Feb 21 The researchers found that the bees did use a waggle dance as a warning signal, but only in response to sightings of one wasp species, Vespa mandarinia japonica. “The hive entrance dance informs bees’ nestmates of a specific emergency and of the urgent necessity to collect odorous plant materials as a counterattack strategy,” Fujiwara says. The bees collect stinky plant materials, such as leaves from Nepalese smartweed (Persicaria nepalensis), and smear them at the hive entrance to deter the wasps. |
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Feb 17 From the data of 29 separate studies, carried out in 9 countries, emerges a ubiquitous contamination of aquatic environments from NN. In about 50% of cases, Imidacloprid (IMI) shows the highest detection frequency rate compared to all NN substances. |
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Feb 14 In 11 out of 12 EU pesticide risk assessment methods studied by the Pesticide Action Network, it turns out that they were developed or promoted by industry. Download: Industry writings its own rules.pdf Pan press release: writing its own rules feb 2018.pdf |
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Feb 14 So Locke and Brown rigged a camera in a remote field in the county’s northwest corner and waited. It didn’t take long to nab their suspect. But he wasn’t who they expected: a Miami Lakes pastor. |
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Feb 11 The South American Pallas’ long-tongued bat, Glossophaga soricina, dips its long tongue in and out of flowers while hovering in mid-air, and the hairs on its tongue apparently helping it collect nectar that pools at the bottom of the blossoms. Other animals, such as honeybees and mouse-like marsupials, known as honey possums, native to Australia similarly possess hairy tongues, but it remained unclear just how much these hairs helped them out with drinking. |
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Feb 09 The scientists monitored the interactions between plants and their pollinators in the mountainous region of St Katherine Protectorate in South Sinai, Egypt. The region supports many range-restricted endemic plants and pollinators whose future may be jeopardised by the recent introduction of alien honeybees. |
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Feb 06 The study, published today in New Phytologist by researchers from the UK and China, shows that flowering plants are neither as old as suggested by previous molecular studies, nor as young as a literal interpretation of their fossil record. |
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Feb 03 The scope of the study in 2017 included:
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Feb 02 The strips were planted on 15 large arable farms in central and eastern England last autumn and will be monitored for five years, as part of a trial run by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH). Concern over the environmental damage caused by pesticides has grown rapidly in recent years. Using wildflower margins to support insects including hoverflies, parasitic wasps and ground beetles has been shown to slash pest numbers in crops and even increase yields. |
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Jan 31 |
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Jan 31 Urgent Warning! Asian Hornets arrive in UK. Are you prepared ? |
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Jan 27 Only, that didn’t happen. Instead, he brought back a story that chilled me to my bones about someone deliberately killing the bees just a few towns away from us |
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Jan 27 Writing in the journal Science, the conservationists argue there is a "lack of distinction" in public understanding - fuelled by misguided charity campaigns and media reports - between an agricultural problem and an urgent biodiversity issue |
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Jan 27 U.S. scientists found neonicotinoid insecticides in about three-quarters of samples from 10 major Great Lakes tributaries. The study is the first to examine the insecticides—gaining notoriety in recent years as a prime suspect in bee die-offs— in the world's largest freshwater system and suggests Great Lakes' fish, birds and entire ecosystems might be at risk. |
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Jan 26 The industrious insects were stolen from an apiary made up of four hives, with three of the hives being raided and six of the frames used to accommodate the bees being taken from each one. |
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Jan 25 |
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Jan 25 American foulbrood disease, or AFB, is caused by the Paenibacillus larvae bacterium, a difficult-to-control and highly destructive pathogen found worldwide. In a study published last week in the open-access Journal of Insect Science, Israel Alvarado, Ph.D., and colleagues at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), explore whether blocking the germination of P. larvae spores is an effective way to treat this infection. |
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Jan 24 Will Michael Gove’s recent decision to back a full ban on neonicotinoids make it harder for us to do this? I do not think so. |
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Jan 22 Veteran beekeeper Ricki Leahy said he first noticed dead bees in front of his hives in the Mangles Valley last Friday. Leahy, who is an ApiNZ board member, produces Tutaki Honey through his business Trees and Bees. He said the 40 hives used for queen rearing around his home had been affected, as well as another 186 hives located half a kilometre down the road. |
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Jan 20 Now we have "Chickens with high levels of antibiotic-resistant superbugs" (follow the link above) So what is the connection ?? 'Purina HeartyBee Supplement' contains Dried Poultry Blood Wonder if this has anything to do with the world running out of effective antibiotics ? and/or remember Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease.? Oooops.! |
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Jan 15 It was first recorded in 1902 but conclusive DNA evidence has now established that honey-making Bombus glacialis - or glacier bumblebee - is a separate species. The findings - to be the subject of a major scientific paper - end a long running academic debate on this remarkable bee's status. More than that, they indicate that during the Ice Age Novaya Zemlya was either wholly or partially free of glacial cover, allowing at least some refugia where the rare insect could live, say scientists. In other words, this species - with a distinguishing wide orange stripe on its underside - lived through the Ice Age on this barren Arctic island. |
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Jan 15 The ‘Bombus glacialis’ species lives on the archipelago of Novaya Zemlya, which the Soviet Union closed off decades ago to carry out scores of nuclear tests. While previously considered to be a subspecies of the B. polaris - one of the only other arctic bee types in the world - a recent study published in Polar Biology confirmed B. glacialis to be its own species |
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Jan 13 |
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Jan 12 |
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Jan 12 |
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Jan 12 30 Japanese Giant Hornets kill 30,000 Honey Bees |
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Jan 12 The report weaves together information from 80 plant-pollinator interaction networks. The results clearly identify the honey bee (Apis mellifera) as the single most frequent visitor to flowers of naturally occurring (non-crop) plants worldwide. Honey bees were recorded in 89 percent of the pollination networks in the honey bee's native range and in 61 percent in regions where honey bees have been introduced by humans. |
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Jan 09 The puzzling finding comes on the heels of other studies linking fungicides to declines in honey bee and wild bee populations. One recent study, for example, found parallels between the use of chlorothalonil and the presence of Nosema bombi, a fungal parasite, in bumble bees. Greater chlorothalonil use also was linked to range contractions in four declining bumble bee species. |