A new study conducted in part by the US Department of Agriculture says that the US lost just over 44 per cent of its bee colonies between April 2015 and March 2016. That’s a lot more than the 34 per cent loss recorded two years ago, and shows a return to the troublesome 45 per cent loss recorded in 2012-13. So, that must mean Canada is in store for a similarly dramatic loss in its bee population, right? Not necessarily, says Mark Winston, a professor in apiculture and social insects at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC. The Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists conducts its own annual study of how many bees die through the winter. While their report on 2015-16 is still forthcoming, the results of 2014-15 study showed a wintering loss of 16.4 per cent, which is an improvement over numbers we’ve seen in the past. (This is compared to the 28.1 per cent loss seen throughout the 2015-16 winter in the US, according to the new study there.) Winston told me that wintering losses in Canada used to be as much as one-third in a single winter, and that that persisted for many years. But he expects this year’s study to reflect the improvements seen last year. “The situation in the US has degenerated significantly in the last few years, while in Canada it’s actually improved,” he told Motherboard .“Industrial agriculture is the main culprit, due to heavy pesticide use and reduction of bee-friendly forage,” Winston told me. “Stricter regulations around pesticides, government subsidies that favour sustainable agriculture and mixed cropping, and increased attention to planting forage for bees in and around farms—[such as] irrigation ditches, roadways, rights of way, empty spaces—would all assist the survival of honeybees and wild bees.”
Source: Motherboard, May 13, 2016
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/bee-populations-seem-to-be-bouncing-ba…
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