Hommels

Bijen, wormen en vogels lijden onder pesticide

De pesticiden neonicotinoïden (neonics) en fipronil vormen een ernstig gevaar voor honingbijen en andere bestuivers zoals vlinders, maar ook regenwormen en vogels lijden eronder. Dat concludeert een groep wetenschappers uit een analyse van alle beschikbare studies, zo’n 800. Hun bevindingen verschijnen weldra in het wetenschappelijk tijdschrift Environmental Science and Pollution Research. Neonicotinoïden zijn stoffen die inwerken op het zenuwstelsel. Blootstelling aan deze stoffen kan onmiddellijk dodelijk zijn maar ook langdurige gevolgen hebben. Een van de hoofdauteurs, Jean-Marc Bonmatin van het Franse Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique noemt de bewijzen ‘zeer duidelijk’. De wetenschappers vinden drastische maatregelen om het gebruik van deze middelen terug te schroeven daarom noodzakelijk.

De ontoelaatbare vervuiling van het Nederlandse cultuurlandschap met imidacloprid werd 10 jaar lang stilzwijgend gedoogd door Ctgb, RIVM en de regering in Den Haag

Het RIVM heeft onlangs na analyse van 'nieuwere' gegevens geconcludeerd dat de waterkwaliteitsnorm voor lange-termijn blootstelling aan imidacloprid moet worden verlaagd van 67 naar 8,3 nanogram per liter oppervlaktewater. Wordt deze norm gehanteerd zijn er volgens de bestrijdingsmiddelenatlas in 2012 bijna overal in het land normoverschrijdingen met imidacloprid. Deze ontoelaatbare situatie bestaat nu al 10 jaar. Uit onderzoek van de Universiteit Utrecht blijkt dat er een verband is tussen imidacloprid concentraties en de insectenrijkdom in het oppervlaktewater: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0062374. De resultaten bevestigen de conclusies van het in 2010 verschenen boek van de toxicoloog Henk Tennekes (The Systemic Insecticides: A Disaster in the Making"): chronische blootstelling van geleedpotigen (arthropoden) aan stoffen die onomkeerbare en zich stapelende beschadigingen in het centrale zenuwstelsel veroorzaken, leiden tot een milieuramp. Pas toen dit niet langer kon worden ontkend, heeft het College voor de toelating van gewasbeschermingsmiddelen en biociden (Ctgb) in januari 2014 besloten tot beperking van de toelating van de imidaclopridhoudende gewasbeschermingsmiddelen Admire, Gaucho Tuinbouw en Kohinor 700 WG.

The disaster I described in 2010 is taking place before our eyes. Crisis in insect biodiversity with knock-on effects for many species

Butterfly Conservation warns that Britain’s biodiversity is under threat following analysis of data from the National Moth Recording Scheme (NMRS), which has collated more than 16 million moth sightings dating back to 1769. The study by Butterfly Conservation, the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and University of York, published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, is the first to examine long-term trends for all of Britain’s resident larger moth species; common and scarce, nocturnal and day-flying. Trends for 673 species were calculated, 60% of which showed a significant change over the 40-year period. Two thirds more species declined than increased. Moths are a key part of the food chain and act as pollinators for plants. The substantial declines revealed by this study provide further evidence of a wider utterfly Conservation warns that Britain’s biodiversity is under threat following analysis of data from the National Moth Recording Scheme (NMRS), which has collated more than 16 million moth sightings dating back to 1769.

Toxic pesticides are killing honeybees and other pollinators — and our food supply stands to suffer

Some of the honeybees were lying on their backs, trembling and twitching. Others were crawling slowly on the ground, unable to fly. Many were motionless, lying dead in piles. Many more had simply disappeared, apparently unable to find their way back to their hives. This was the gruesome scene commercial beekeeper Steve Ellis came upon on the morning of May 7, 2013.
The sight stunned Ellis, who has owned and operated Old Mill Honey Company in Barrett, Minnesota for 35 years. "Normally in the spring, we typically expect bees to build up and get stronger," he recalled. "For a beekeeper to watch his bees be devastated in the springtime — it's like watching a little child get extremely sick and debilitated. It takes a real mental toll on you."
But almost immediately, Ellis discovered the culprit: That morning, a farmer had planted corn in a field directly adjacent to his bee yard, which housed roughly 1,300 hives at the time. He was well aware that most corn seeds are treated with a pesticide called neonicotinoids. And that day, the wind was blowing from the cornfield toward Ellis' bees, the beekeeper wrote in an incident report he sent to the US Environmental Protection Agency. The bees' only sources of food were nearby willow trees, which, Ellis surmised, had become coated with pesticide-contaminated dust. "We took a close look to see how the bees were behaving when they were trying to forage them. It was shocking what we found," Ellis said in a video he took that day documenting the massacre. "Bees literally incapacitated when they come in contact with the flowers."

Dave Goulson's memories of Rachel Carson: can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life?

We have recently been surveying what chemicals the local farmers in East Sussex use each year. Chemicals applied to two fairly typical fields, one with winter oilseed rape, one with winter wheat, in a single growing season (2012/13). I should stress that these are perfectly normal farms; not especially intensive, situated on the edge of the South Downs, an area of gentle hills, hedgerows and wooded valleys. Beautiful, rural England; Constable would have liked it here. But let’s look at it from a bee’s perspective, focussing on the oilseed rape, since this is a crop they will feed on when it flowers: firstly, the crop is sown in late summer with a seed dressing containing the insecticide thiamethoxam. This is a systemic neonicotinoid, with exceedingly high toxicity to bees. We know it is taken up by the plant, and that detectable levels will be in the nectar and pollen gathered by bees in the following spring. In November, despite the supposed protection of the neonicotinoid, the crop is sprayed with another insecticide, the charmingly named Gandalf. Gandalf contains beta-cyfluthrin, a pyrethroid. Pyrethroids are highly toxic to bees and other insects, but there should be no bees about in November so that is probably OK. The following May, when it is flowering, the crop is sprayed with another pyrethroid, alpha-cypermethrin. Less than three weeks later, the crop is blitzed with three more pyrethroids, all mixed together, a real belt-and-braces approach. Why use one when three will do? The crop is still flowering at this point (it was a late year), and would be covered in foraging bumblebees and other pollinators. In between, the crop is also treated with a barrage of herbicides, fungicides, molluscicides and fertilizers – 22 different chemicals in total.

Api/Pesticidi. Conoscere per parlare e... per poter agire… con cognizione di causa

Il Centro di Riferimento Tecnico per l’Apicoltura Problematiche Ambientali e Nutrizionali di Unaapi ha sviluppato negli anni una più che proficua ollaborazione con tutti gli enti, soggetti istituzionali e scientifici che si sono variamente impegnati per rimediare alle cause che provocano il collasso di api e impollinatori. Vai riconosciuta alla ricerca scientifica italiana – perché significativamente pubblica e non condizionata? - una notevole capacità di monitoraggio e d’indagine. Grazie anche all’insieme di ricerche italiane si sono affermate alcune semplici, ma determinanti, modalità di studio, quali: l’insensatezza della traslazione all’alveare della dose letale 50 manifestata dalle singole api; la distinzione fra mortalità invernali e in stagione attiva; l’impatto ambientale della contaminazione in epoca di semina con concianti sistemici; la considerazione della possibilità che sia: “la goccia prodotta dall’uomo che fa traboccare il vaso”; le variegate vie di posizione “abitualmente” non considerate ecc… Il CRT Unaapi ha quindi ritenuto indispensabile proporre una disamina dello stato delle conoscenze sui comprovati e possibili effetti dei pesticidi sulle api, per:
• Denunciare infondatezza e falsità delle rassicurazioni sulla: “certa assenza di conseguenze”.
• Evidenziare quanti e quali sono gli aspetti non considerati rispetto ai possibili effetti dei pesticidi (puntuali o
ancor peggio: cronici) su api, impollinatori e vivente.
• Invitare apicoltori e cittadinanza tutta ad andare oltre la vaga lamentela, documentandosi adeguatamente.
Ringrazio i ricercatori che hanno redatto tale imponente e istruttiva, complessa ma fruibile, rassegna. A quanti si misureranno con la lettura l’auspicio di far tesoro di tale mole di accertamenti scientifici…

The heated debate around the use of the neonicotinoid-coated seeds turned Canada into a kind of environmental battlefront

This spring most Canadian corn and soybean growers will be planting another crop of pesticide-coated seeds, even as researchers raise new warnings that the practice may have deadly side effects for bees and other wildlife. The heated debate around the use of the neonicotinoid-coated seeds, developed by Bayer CropScience and introduced here about a decade ago, has divided farmers, beekeepers and scientists, and turned Canada into a kind of environmental battlefront.

Harvard universiteit bevestigt de oorzaak van bijensterfte

Wetenschappers van de Harvard University hebben sterke aanwijzingen gevonden naar de oorzaak van ‘colony collapse disorder’, ofwel bijenverdwijnziekte in het Nederlands. De bijenverdwijnziekte is een fenomeen waarbij bijenkolonies plots leeg worden teruggevonden. Zelfs de dode bijen worden niet meer teruggevonden. Volgens het onderzoek zouden pesticiden de oorzaak zijn van de bijenverdwijnziekte. Het researchteam, onder leiding van Chensheng Lu, onderzocht achttien bijenkolonies op drie locaties in Massachusetts gedurende de winter van 2012. Vier kolonies op elke plaats kregen maïssiroop met pesticiden die neonicotinoïden bevatten. Neonicotinoïden is voor insecten een soort zenuwgas en het imiteert de werking van nicotine. De twee andere kolonies per plaats kregen niets toegediend. In de lente van 2013 bleek dat de kolonies die neonicotinoïden toegediend kregen voor de helft verdwenen waren. De bijenkolonies die nog overbleven waren niet in de beste staat. Vaak hadden ze geen bijenkoningin of ontwikkelende bijen.

L’UICN, Syngenta et le déclin des bourdons

C’est un communiqué d’apparence anodine, rendu public le 2 avril par l’Union internationale pour la conservation de la nature (UICN). La vénérable organisation de défense de la biodiversité, célèbre pour le maintien de sa « liste rouge » des espèces menacées, y dresse un sombre état des lieux de la situation des bourdons d’Europe, importants pollinisateurs : 30 des 68 espèces du genre Bombus présentes sur le continent y sont en déclin et 12 menacées d’extinction. « Le changement climatique, l’intensification de l’agriculture et les changements dans l’utilisation des terres agricoles sont les menaces principales auxquelles ces espèces sont confrontées », précise l’UICN dans son communiqué.

Beinahe 80 Prozent der Gartenpflanzen auf dem europäischen Markt sind mit Pestiziden belastet, die schädlich für Bienen sind

Zu diesem Ergebnis kam eine Studie der Umweltorganisation Greenpeace, bei der 35 verschiedene Pflanzen in zehn Ländern analysiert worden sind. Der Greenpeace-Report „Giftiger Garten Eden - Eine Analyse der bienenschädlichen Pestizide in Gartenpflanzen auf dem europäischen Markt“ hat verschiedene bienenattraktive Pflanzenarten wie Veilchen, Lavendel und Primeln aus Gartenzentren, Baumärkten und Supermärkten untersucht. Nur zwei der 86 Proben waren frei von Chemikalien, der Rest wies einen regelrechten Cocktail an Pestiziden auf. 14 Prozent der europäischen Proben enthielten Pestizide ohne Zulassung in der EU. Unter den am stärksten belasteten Proben fand sich eine Probe aus Österreich aus der Gärtnerei Starkl mit 15 verschiedenen Pestiziden, davon sechs, die im österreichischen Zierpflanzenbau nicht zugelassen sind. Mehr als die Hälfte der Proben wiesen Neonicotinoide auf, die EU-weit teilweise verboten wurden und laut der Umweltorganisation als „inakzeptables Risiko für Bienen und andere Bestäuber gelten“. Die Produktion in Glashäusern ist vom Verbot allerdings ausgenommen. „Gartenfreunde werden ungewollt zu Mittätern gemacht“, kritisierte Huem Otero, Landwirtschaftssprecherin von Greenpeace.