Hommels

Since 2009 I've been writing about the plight of beleaguered honeybees due to toxic chemicals; over five billion pounds of insecticides -- one third of them are lethal neonicotiniods (neonics) thrust into our biosphere each year. Neonics are a neuro-active insecticide fashioned after nicotine, neonics poison nerves and prevent acetylcholine from enabling neurons to communicate with each other and muscle tissue. In humans, this substance would trigger Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. My colleague Dr Henk Tennekes reported the deadly effects of neonics on both soil organisms and their 'knock-on-effects' causing starvation to meadow birds and their predators Goshawks as well as contaminating waterways for many years thereafter across Western Europe. It seems that his thorough research was blatantly disregarded elsewhere around the globe by feckless government regulatory bodies. An intrepid Dr Christy Morrissey of the University of Saskatchewan set out to investigate just how wide spread the effects of neonics were across the prairies of Western Canada. Eighty to 90 percent of the wetlands she studied were contaminated with these odious poisons, which remain in toxic concentrations within the waterways for years. She too found 'knock-on-effects' in soils extending up the food chain, which reduced populations of many animals. Earthlings are knowingly annihilating the exquisite tapestry of life or Earth's biodiversity.

Friends of the Earth conducted a pilot study to determine the extent of neonicotinoid contamination of common nursery plants purchased at retail garden centers in cities across the U.S. This is the first investigation of neonicotinoid insecticide concentrations in “bee-friendly” nursery plants sold to consumers
at garden centers in cities across America. The findings indicate that bee-friendly nursery plants sold at U.S. retailers may contain systemic pesticides at levels that are high enough to cause adverse effects on bees and other pollinators — with no warning to consumers.

Three of the 15 bumble bee species found in Vermont are thought to be extinct and at least one other species is in decline. Bumble bees pollinate crops such as apples, blueberries and tomatoes, making them critical to Vermont’s agricultural economy. Sara Zahendra, a field biologist with the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, says losing native bumble bees is cause for serious concern. “There’s a lot that’s bad about losing native bumble bees,” she said. “One of the main things is that they are far and away the best pollinators of tomatoes. Where there aren’t a lot of native bumble bees, people have to hand-pollinate, which is incredibly expensive.” Native bumble bees are more important than honeybees for crop pollination. Leif Richardson, an entomologist at Dartmouth College, said in a VCE news release that “Wild bees perform the majority of all pollination on Vermont farms, whether or not the managed honeybee is present.” “As an ecosystem service, pollination is worth millions annually,” Richardson continued. “But we don’t know how the loss of native bee species will affect our food supply or overall environmental health.”

Le moratoire annoncé par le commissaire européen Borg du printemps dernier ciblait trois famille de néonicotinoïde, permettant d'exclure notamment l'insecticide de marque "Cruiser" pour la protection des maïs et colza. Les abeilles devaient être "tranquilles" pour deux ans. Or, comme la décision de la Commission ne porte que sur trois familles de néonicotinoïde, le groupe Bayer a trouvé la parade en commercialisant massivement l'insecticide "Sonido" – contenant la molécule thiaclopride – dont la commission environnement au Parlement européen dans un avis de 2011 sur la santé des abeilles qui avait alerté sur les dangers de cette molécule pour les abeilles. Des estimations évaluent à 800.000 hectares en France de cultures traitées en 2014 avec ce produit, menaçant gravement les abeilles et donc l'ensemble de l'écosystème.

Parasites and pesticides are among the suspected principle drivers of pollinator declines. However, especially in the case of key wild pollinators, there is insufficient data on the relative impact of these individual environmental stressors and if they interact to increase detrimental effects. Using a fully crossed factorial design, we investigated how laboratory exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides, thiamethoxam and clothianidin, over a 9-week period and a prevalent trypanosome gut parasite Crithidia bombi affects various crucial colony traits of the bumblebee Bombus terrestris. We show that chronic dietary exposure from an early stage of colony development to doses of thiamethoxam and clothianidin that could be encountered in the field truncated worker production, reduced worker longevity, and decreased overall colony reproductive success. Further, we demonstrate a significant interaction between neonicotinoid exposure and parasite infection on mother queen survival. The fate of the mother queen is intrinsically linked to colony success, and under combined pressure of parasite infection and neonicotinoid exposure mother queen survival was lowest. This indicates increased detrimental effects of combined exposure on this crucial colony trait. Combined effects may be exacerbated in stressful natural environments where more pronounced parasite virulence is expected. Our findings reiterate that dietary exposure to neonicotinoids can impact on bumblebee colony performance and fitness. The indication of combined negative effects of ecologically relevant pressures suggests additional adverse consequences for long-term population dynamics under complex field conditions.