English

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.

Birders across the city reported seeing fewer starlings — and pretty much every other bird — during the 96th Christmas Bird Count. Dozens of bird lovers flocked together across the city on Boxing Day for the annual tally put on by the Hamilton Naturalists' Club, and noticed a consistent decrease in populations all around. "We might have close to the 30,000 we had last year as this trend continues, perhaps even less," said Rob Porter, head of field events with the Hamilton Naturalists' Club and Digital Naturalist. "It's a single snapshot in a single day of a single year," said Porter.

Just before the new year, drivers on Route 22 were disturbed to see dozens of blackbirds that seemed to fall from the sky and onto the highway. Helpless and hobbled, the birds that didn't die immediately were unable to get out of the way of oncoming traffic and dozens were killed, according to witnesses. Roughly 200 red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) tumbled out of the sky in Stow Creek Township, N.J., a few days before Thanksgiving. And on New Year's Eve 2010, about 5,000 blackbirds fell from the sky over Beebe, Ark., hitting some people.

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).

English waterways could lose one of their most charismatic and once widespread residents as water voles succumb to the invasive American mink, records released by the Canal and River Trust show.

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.

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 impairment of liver function by low environmentally relevant doses of glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH) is still a debatable and unresolved matter. Previously we have shown that rats administered for 2 years with 0.1 ppb (50 ng/L glyphosate equivalent dilution; 4 ng/kg body weight/day daily intake) of a Roundup GBH formulation showed signs of enhanced liver injury as indicated by anatomorphological, blood/urine biochemical changes and transcriptome profiling.

The last few years haven’t been good for the Oregon silverspot butterfly (Speyeria zerene hippolyta). Already a threatened species with just four populations on the Oregon Coast, the yellow-orange butterfly’s numbers plummeted even lower in recent years, biologists said. The silverspot declined from a population of thousands to as little as 120 on Mount Hebo, the species' largest population in Oregon, according to a report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

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.