[Knoxbees]

Neonicotinoids (Imidacloprid and Clothianidin) disrupt bees ability to orient and return to hive. Sure wish Bayer would have found this out before they started going to local associations and saying these substances are safe for use.

Sorry the link is in german: http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/pestizide-machen-bienen-orientierungslos-a-959820.html

 

[brettj777]

Hmm, seems odd for the second post of a "newbie" to be about neonics, and to quote German studies....

 

[Nabber86]

ienen orientieren sich nach dem Sonnenkompass und entwickeln für ihre Flugrouten rund um den Bienenstock eine innere Landkarte. Im Experiment testeten die FU-Forscher die Wirkung der beiden nach ihren Angaben derzeit verbotenen Pestizide Imidacloprid und Clothianidin sowie des Pflanzenschutzmittels Thiacloprid: Sie trainierten eine Gruppe Bienen zunächst darauf, eine Futterstelle 400 Meter entfernt vom Bienenstock direkt anzufliegen. Danach summten die Tiere wieder zurück.

Well that was helpful.

 

[Knoxbees]

Sorry to confuse everyone. After some digging I found this article about the same research on neonics and how they disable bee orientation. I've been a longtime lurker!

http://www.fu-berlin.de/en/presse/i...erung-pestizide-publikation-menzel/index.html

 

[Nabber86]

In the test situation, the navigation of the bee has two phases, the so-called vector flight and the so-called homing flight. In a third step, the test bees were administered a small amount of the pesticide in their feed. It turned out that their sense of direction during the homing phase was disturbed by the insecticide.

Brilliant! If you poison bees, they have problems with navigation

Significantly fewer bees successfully returned to the hive, and overall, the flight paths were less direct.

Uber brilliant! There is a direct correlation between dose and effect.


I feel so much more informed now that I know this new information. Of course this being a German study, how can we be certain that Bayer did not influence the outcome?

 

[brettj777]

Well TF and 1 year don't seem to be impressive stats. Perhaps you should get a track record of keeping bees alive before you blame or seek to inform the rest of us about neonics.

 

[Barry]

There's no need to make this personal. A study was presented for discussion and that's where the comments need to be directed to.

 

[Tiny Barn Farm]

I talk to many new and even prospective beekeepers who bring up the neonics. I don't see why people get so offended when we talk about something that can be harmful to bees. I see both sides of the fence as I live around farmers and while I don't choose to use those products myself I try to limit my bees exposure to them by talking to the people who do use them. Go talk to the farmers and ask them to call you the day before they will plant or spray and keep your bees locked up for a day.

 

[Nabber86]

My scarcasm was projected at message not the messenger. Anyway, welcome to to Beesource Knoxbees. You picked a great first topic to discuss.

 

[Nabber86]

I I don't see why people get so offended when we talk about something that can be harmful to bees.

The only reason that I am offended is that the article has proven what has been proven many times in the past: dont feed bees poison.

Things such as this should be implicit, as in:

I fed pure menthol to my bees and they could not navigate - Then don't feed your bees menthol

I sprayed my bees with sugar syrup on a cold and windy day and the bees could not fly, they fell to the ground in a clump and died - Then don't spray your bees with sugar syrup on a cold and windy day.

I added ground up MAQs strips to my protein patty recipe and all the bees died - Then don't add ground up MAQs to my protein patties

I fed Testor's queen marking paint to my bees and they could not navigate - Then don't feed your bees Testor's queen marking paint

 

[WLC]

"The flight paths of individual bees were tracked with harmonic radar. "

That's interesting.

"Given this wide-spread central nervous distribution, it is not surprising that sublethal neonicotinoid doses compromise behavior and cognitive abilities also in honeybees including memory formation and retrieval [29], [30], social interactions, navigation and communication [11], [12] [31]. "

Right, they're not surprised by the effects of neonics either.

"Radar tracking of honeybee flights in a catch-and-release experiment uncovers two navigational components, the initial vector flight and the ensuing homing flight. "

Those are some interesting behaviors on which to examine the effects of neonics.

"Application of the three neonicotinoids imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiacloprid at sublethal doses interfered with navigation of honeybees, although it did not affect flight performance per se or the bees' motivation to return to the hive. "

That's all folks.

 

[hilreal]

Sorry, but ok, we get it, insecticides harm bees......that is what they were designed to do, harm insects. Any crop protection scientist who comes up with an insecticide that doesn't harm insects will not be employed for very long.