Insecticides

Paul Nothers ist ein Mann, der genau hinschaut. Lange bevor die Grünen ihr Augenmerk auf den Umweltschutz legten, setzte sich der graduierte Landwirt und passionierte Jäger schon für Umwelt- und Naturschutz ein. Seit vielen Jahren warnt er eindringlich vor dem Insektensterben und dem Einsatz von Herbiziden und Pestiziden, allen voran Neonikotinoide und Glyphosat. Heute wird er 85 Jahre alt.

Intensive agriculture is known to decrease the quality of nutrients, in the form of sugars, available in the nectar and pollen that bees eat. Now scientists have found that when bees eat a low sugar diet, they are 50 per cent more likely to die as a result of neonicotinoid exposure. "These findings should cause us to rethink our current pesticide risk assessment procedures, which, based upon our findings, may underestimate the toxic effects of pesticides on bees," said Dr Simone Tosi, a University of California San Diego researcher who co-authored the study.

Spring is an important period for bumble bees, as that’s when new colonies get their start. When a solitary bumble bee queen emerges from hibernation, she initiates a nest and then does the foraging work herself, until her first offspring hatch, develop into workers, and relieve her from all duties but egg laying. Thus, should any harm befall the queen in this early period, it can have ripple effects on the health of the developing colony.

In England, the total abundance of widespread butterfly species declined by 58% on farmed land between 2000 and 2009 despite both a doubling in conservation spending in the UK, and predictions that climate change should benefit most species. Here we build models of the UK population indices from 1985 to 2012 for 17 widespread butterfly species that commonly occur at farmland sites. Of the factors we tested, three correlated significantly with butterfly populations. Summer temperature and the index for a species the previous year are both positively associated with butterfly indices.

Experiments linking neonicotinoids and declining bee health have been criticized for not simulating realistic exposure. Here we quantified the duration and magnitude of neonicotinoid exposure in Canada’s corn-growing regions and used these data to design realistic experiments to investigate the effect of such insecticides on honey bees. Colonies near corn were naturally exposed to neonicotinoids for up to 4 months—the majority of the honey bee’s active season.

Queen health is crucial to colony survival of honeybees, since reproduction and colony growth rely solely on the queen. Queen failure is considered a relevant cause of colony losses, yet few data exist concerning effects of environmental stressors on queens. Here we demonstrate for the first time that exposure to field-realistic concentrations of neonicotinoid pesticides can severely affect the immunocompetence of queens of western honeybees (Apis mellifera L.).

Neonicotinoide werden mit dem Bienensterben in Verbindung gebracht. Umweltministerin Hendricks will wie die EU-Kommission ein Verbot in der Freilandanwendung. Agrarminister Schmidt sträubt sich noch dagegen dagegen. Nach dem Glyphosat-Streit zwischen Umweltministerin Hendricks und Agrarminister Schmidt droht nun neuer Zoff zwischen den beiden geschäftsführenden Bundesministern, die in einigen Teilbereichen eben unterschiedliche Ansichten vertreten.

Rivers in England are contaminated with powerful insecticides, new testing has revealed, increasing concerns over the impact of the toxic chemicals on fish and birds. Eight rivers in England are heavily contaminated with neonicotinoid pesticides. Two of the rivers, the Waveney on the border between Norfolk and Suffolk, and the Tame in the West Midlands, had an “acute level” of pollution, according to tests conducted by the Environment Agency last year.