[ExI] bees again

[BillK]

2012/3/23 spike wrote:
> Can anyone here think of any alternate explanation besides poisoning for
> seeing two bees dying together, same place, same time, same stage of
> decline?  This twin death had the same symptoms as others I have observed:
> the bees couldn’t fly, but could still walk, did not show age effects such
> as tattered wing trailing edges, and were passive.  I carried at least three
> of them home in the palm of my hand and none made any attempt to sting.  All
> died within an hour of being observed walking.  A virus wouldn’t slay them
> that quickly I wouldn’t think, and a parasite would be an even slower
> decline.
>
> I have a mind to talk to that homeowner, find out what pesticides they use.
> Don’t know what to do with the info, but I want it anyway.
>
>

The US bee-keepers are already doing something.

<http://truefoodnow.org/2012/03/21/beekeepers-environmental-groups-to-epa-pesticide-approval-is-irresponsible-damaging/>
Quote:
Beekeepers & Environmental Groups to EPA: Pesticide Approval is
“Irresponsible” & “Damaging”
Posted on March 21, 2012

Over 1 million urge EPA to suspend use of pesticide harmful to bees,
fix broken regulatory system

Today, commercial beekeepers and environmental organizations filed an
urgent legal petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) to suspend further use of a pesticide the agency knows poses
harm to honey bees, and adopt safeguards to ensure similar future
pesticides aren’t approved by the agency. The legal petition is
supported by over one million citizen petitions also submitted today
that were collected from people across the country calling out one
pesticide in particular – clothianidin – for its harmful impacts on
honey bees.“EPA has an obligation to protect pollinators from the
threat of pesticides,” said Jeff Anderson of California Minnesota
Honey Farms, a co-petitioner. “The Agency has failed to adequately
regulate pesticides harmful to pollinators despite scientific and
on-the-ground evidence presented by academics and beekeepers.”
----------------

The harmful pesticides are called neonicotinoids.
That includes
    Acetamiprid
    Clothianidin
    Dinotefuran
    Imidacloprid
    Nitenpyram
    Thiacloprid
    Thiamethoxam
but there are probably lots of domestic use brand names available in the US.


BillK