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On Tuesday 21 July Christian Schmidt, Germany’s Federal Minister of Agriculture, signed an urgency decree coming into immediate effect forbidding all trade, import and sowing of winterwheat seed-coated with the nicotinoids Clothianidin, Imidacloprid und Thiamethoxam. Minister Schmidt argumented the decision as necessary to prevent massive death of honey bees saying that “ with this decision honey bees will be protected from dust contaminated with insecticides. This serves the bees as an important part of nature as well as the farmers who are dependent on bees for the pollinisation of their plants.” The attached article by Klaus Wenzel, published in the Journal Entomologische Zeitschrift Heft 2-2015 in May, has been instrumental in bringing the German authorities to this decision.

The world’s population of creepy crawlies has fallen by nearly half – but that is bad news for us, experts warn. A study published in the journal Science, reveals that the number of slugs, spiders, worms and other invertebrates has fallen by 45 per cent over the past 35 years as the human population has doubled. Experts fear this will harm the planet as creepy crawlies play an important role in pollinating crops, pest control, decomposition and ensuring soil remains packed with nutrients, as well as water filtration. In the UK the number of beetles, butterflies, bees and wasps has fallen by up to 60 per cent. Experts warn that fewer insects would have a huge effect on crop production as up to 75 per are pollinated by insects, amounting to around 10 per cent of the world's food supply. And the cost of pest control without natural predators could be more than £2.6 billion pounds in the United States alone. Scientists fear a drop in the insect population could also spark a decline in birds, which prey on pests that damage crops, and amphibians, which help keep water supplies free from algae. Decreasing invertebrate numbers are also known to compromise food production due to reduced pollination, seed dispersal and insect predation.

New findings published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology investigate the use of insecticides--specifically neonicotinoids--and their effects on the decline of the honey bee population. Although sunlight plays an important role in degrading pollutants, its effects on neonicotinoids may diminish, particularly when exposed to water. In order to protect crops from pests, including whiteflies, beetles and termites, neonicotinoids are often used as a popular protection tool among farmers. However, they end up washing into the surface waters and soil. For the study, researchers looked to investigate the sunlight's effects on these insecticides in the water. They tested five neonicotinoids in water under simulated sunny conditions and within minutes, three degraded considerably, according to researchers. And while two took a few days to break down, a depth of just 3 inches of water was enough to shield at least one, thiamethoxam, from the sun. The researchers noted that at a persistent rate with shallow depth, this could increase insecticide exposure to both aquatic life and other wildlife exposure.

It is a good question, and many local people are wondering about the answer. Biologists confirm that swallow numbers have dropped precipitously in the past 50 years, by up to 90 per cent. Researchers describe the decline as “shocking.” The numbers of barn swallows, trees swallows and purple martins have collapsed especially rapidly. “Maybe (the time) when insects are abundant is no longer when swallows are breeding,” suggested Tara Imlay of Dalhousie University. It is as if the peak breeding period, and peak food supply, are no longer in sync. In Ontario, the barn swallow population has fallen by close to 70 per cent since 1966. “The decline is especially alarming because swallows used to be so abundant and widespread,” said expert Bridget Stutchbury. Biologists estimate that in North America about 50 per cent of all songbirds have vanished in the past 50 years.

One of the most vivid memories Jeff Gordon had growing up in Delaware was the sight of moths at night. “When I was just a kid in the mid to late 60s,” said Gordon, “my grandparents bought a place on Rehoboth Bay, at that time, it was really out in the woods. And I remember one of the magical things as a kid, in the evenings, we had a screen porch and the lights there would attract, just this carpet of moths, and not just tiny little brown moths, there were luna moths, and rosy maple moths and prometheus and polyphemus and big, spectacular, intricately colored moths. It’s really one of the things I feel most strongly awakened an interest in nature in me, it set me on a path that I followed to the rest of my life.” Jeff Gordon is now the president of the American Birding Association, a national birdwatching organization that’s headquartered in Delaware City. These days, he doesn’t see as many moths as he used to when he was a kid. “It’s just so radically different now, the numbers and diversity,” said Gordon. “I think most of those species are still present, but it used to be like a blizzard. Now, it’s a few flurries. I hate to say this but unfortunately, one of the recent encounters I had with the silk moths in that area was finding one flopping around under a 24-hour gas station.”

Wildlife experts in the United Kingdom report that the population of large puffins (Fratercula arctica) living on a Scottish has significantly dropped in the last three decades, from 20,000 individuals birds down to around 10,000 in recent years. In a long-term study featured in the PLOS ONE journal, scientists from the Fair Isle Bird Observatory noted that the dramatic reduction in the number of puffins on the island began during the 1980s. They believe that the failure of young birds to return to the island could likely be the cause of the decline. The researchers said that the puffins could be suffering from the lack of enough fish to feed on in the area.

More than 70% of pollen and honey samples collected from foraging bees in Massachusetts contain at least one neonicotinoid, a class of pesticide that has been implicated in Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), in which adult bees abandon their hives during winter, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study will be published online July 23, 2015 in the Journal of Environmental Chemistry. "Data from this study clearly demonstrated the ubiquity of neonicotinoids in pollen and honey samples that bees are exposed to during the seasons when they are actively foraging across Massachusetts. Levels of neonicotinoids that we found in this study fall into ranges that could lead to detrimental health effects in bees, including CCD," said Chensheng (Alex) Lu, associate professor of environmental exposure biology in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard Chan School and lead author of the study.