Insecticides

In 2014, the first and most comprehensive look at the environmental causes of autism and developmental delay, known as the CHARGE study, found that the nearby application of agricultural pesticides greatly increases the risk of autism. Women who lived less than a mile from fields where chlorpyrifos was sprayed during their second trimesters of pregnancy, as Magda did, had their chances of giving birth to an autistic child more than triple.

New EPA documents have finally put hard numbers to the use of neonicotinoid insecticides, which have quietly grown to dominate corn and soybean acreage in the U.S. over the past five to six years. Now pollinator and aquatic risk assessments on three neonicotinoids released on Jan. 12 revealed what many have long suspected: the chemicals are everywhere. EPA estimated that 42 million to 61 million acres of corn are treated with clothianidin annually (45% to 65% of all U.S. corn acres), and 24 million to 42 million acres of corn are treated with thiamethoxam (26% to 45% of all U.S.

At least 200 mostly red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) died in November in the rural area near Bridgeton, New Jersey, and some were seen flying in a disoriented manner. The state is performing additional tests on the blackbirds that died to see whether the insecticide imidacloprid killed them. Several of the birds that were examined had wheat seeds in their digestive tracts. Wheat seed coated with imidacloprid is believed to have been used in the area around the time of the deaths, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

The rusty patched bumblebee, a prized but vanishing pollinator once familiar to much of North America, was listed on Tuesday as an endangered species, becoming the first wild bee in the continental United States to gain such federal protection. One of several species facing sharp declines, the bumblebee known to scientists as Bombus affinis has plunged nearly 90% in abundance and distribution since the late 1990s, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Am vergangenen Wochenende - von Freitag, 6. Januar, bis Sonntag, 8. Januar 2017 - hatte der Naturschutzbund NABU wieder zur Teilnahme an seiner traditionellen "Stunde der Wintervögel" aufgerufen. Jeder, der Lust hatte, sollte eine Stunde lang die Vögel auf dem heimischen Balkon, im Garten oder Park beobachten, zählen und anschließend dem NABU melden. Bundesweit haben sich rund 60.000 Menschen beteiligt. Das erste Ergebnis ist ernüchternd: Es gibt deutlich weniger Gartenvögel als im Vorjahr.

In the wake of ongoing debate by experts, neonicotinoid pesticide, imidacloprid, has been proven a threat to the survival of bats in Taiwan after last year being confirmed as harmful to bees by the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States. A research team headed by Wu Chung-hsin (吳忠信), professor in life sciences at National Taiwan Normal University, found that bats feeding on imidacloprid-tainted insects were unable to fly along learned paths, as a result of which they often "got lost" while out hunting.

The world’s most widely used insecticides harm the ability of bees to vibrate flowers and shake out the pollen to fertilise crops, according to preliminary results from a new study. Some flowers, such as those of crops like tomatoes and potatoes, must be shaken to release pollen and bumblebees are particularly good at creating the buzz needed to do this. But the research shows that bumblebees exposed to realistic levels of a neonicotinoid pesticide fail to learn how to create the greatest buzz and collect less pollen as a result.