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Is New Pesticide Less Than Bee-nign?http://ellsworthmaine.com/site/index.php? option=com_content & task=view & id=7503 & Itemid=31Written by Letitia BaldwinThursday, April 12, 2007Blueberry Growers Concerned About Loss of Pollinating HoneybeesELLSWORTH ME — Dave Hackenberg, a Pennsylvania commercial beekeeperwhose bees have pollinated wild Maine blueberry crops for decades,was the first in the nation to report the mysterious disappearanceof millions of honeybees this winter.Hives rented from commercial pollinators who bring bees to Mainefrom as far away as Texas await the season in an Orland field.—He is blaming a newer class of pesticides toutedas being more environmentally benign.Hackenberg, who has supplied beehives to Jasper Wyman & Son andother Maine wild blueberry growers since the 1960s, suspects neo-nicotinoids may have triggered "colony collapse disorder" and themass abandonment of hundreds of thousands of bee colonies around thecountry this winter.The insecticides, increasingly used to treat agricultural cropsranging from corn to wheat, are favored because they isolatespecific pests.Hackenberg, who is contracted to supply more than 10,000 beehivesfrom his own stock and from seven other commercial apiaries nextmonth to Jasper Wyman & Son, reports honeybees now are failing toreturn to their hives in some Florida citrus groves sprayed with neo-nicotinoids. Speaking this week from Florida, where his bees havebeen pollinating cantaloupe crops and he has been rebuilding hisdecimated stock, he says neo-nicotinoids break down bees' immunesystems and cause memory loss and other side effects."It's something we've never seen before. It's just like someoneswept the hives out with a sweeper," the 58-year-old beekeeper saidby cell phone Monday while at work in the cantaloupe fields. "It'sjust astounding. It's mind-boggling."Hackenberg's theory has not been proven but scientists are notpointing to another cause for the inexplicable loss of hundreds ofthousands of colonies from 24 states across the country. Scientistsnote that bees are spending far greater time being trucked, whichcould strain their immune systems and make them more vulnerable todisease and toxic chemicals.By week's end, Hackenberg heads to Pennsylvania where his colonieswill pollinate apple crops before moving on to Maine in mid-May. Hispollination fee has shot up from $60 to $90 per beehive to cover his$350,000 loss and the subsequent cost of replacing two-thirds of hisstock."Our concern about blueberries is about where we are coming fromand what happens along the way," explained the 58-year-oldcommercial beekeeper, who is "flat out" refusing to pollinate anymore agricultural crops treated with neo-nicotinoids. "We don't knowwhat we're going to encounter before we get to Maine."David Yarborough, a longtime blueberry specialist at the Universityof Maine, estimates Maine will need about 55,000 beehives topollinate its 2007 wild blueberry crop. He says the Maine blueberryindustry, consisting of about 500 growers, harvested 74.6 millionpounds last year. The 2006 wild blueberry crop was valued at morethan $60 million.Yarborough expects beekeepers' pollination fees to rise, but doesn'tforesee any impact on blueberry prices."How much you spend to grow blueberries doesn't have anything to dowith how much you sell it for," he explained late last week.Meanwhile Jasper Wyman & Son President Edward R. Flanagan is callingfor legislators to allocate funds for in-depth studies into colonycollapse disorder."The Farm Bill is up for renewal by September," noted Flanagan,speaking late last week from his Boston office. The bulk of themoney usually goes to the biggest crops such as cotton, corn, soyand wheat. Our plea is to motivate them about money and make surethey allocate money."

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All I can say is that when bees go bye-bye, so will we...

 

Barbara

 

 

 

cyndikrall wrote:

 

 

 

Is New Pesticide Less Than Bee-nign?

http://ellsworthmaine.com/site/index.php?

 

option=com_content & task=view & id=7503 & Itemid=31

[Guest guest]

I agree, I can't believe more people aren't concerned yet.

 

Cyndi

 

In a message dated 4/18/2007 12:04:43 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, barbara3 writes:

All I can say is that when bees go bye-bye, so will we...Barbaracyndikrall wrote:

 

 

Is New Pesticide Less Than Bee-nign?http://ellsworthmaine.com/site/index.php? option=com_content & task=view & id=7503 & Itemid=31

 

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