[Pollinator] Fwd: CATCH THE BUZZ - Corn Planting Killing Bees. Help Stop This Now.

Tue May 15 07:14:24 PDT 2012

Thanks to Chip Taylor for this from Kim Flottum's The Buzz

____________________________________
 From: chip at ku.edu
To: Ladadams at aol.com
Sent: 5/15/2012 5:08:08 A.M.  Pacific Daylight Time
Subj: Fwd: CATCH THE BUZZ - Corn Planting Killing  Bees. Help Stop This Now.

>Date: Fri, 11 May 2012 14:40:34 -0500
>To:  <chip at ku.edu>
>From: Kim Flottum  <Kim at BeeCulture.com>
>Subject: CATCH THE BUZZ - Corn Planting  Killing Bees. Help Stop This Now.
>X-Ezezine:  (1636.24385.4009)
>
>This ezine is also available online at  
><http://home.ezezine.com/1636/1636-2012.05.11.14.40.archive.html>http://hom
e.ezezine.com/1636/1636-2012.05.11.14.40.archive.html
>
>
>
>CATCH  THE BUZZ
>
>Corn Planting Drift is Killing Honey Bees. You Can  Help. Here's How.
>
>The number of beekills this spring due to  
>poisoning by pesticides has skyrocketed. In Ohio 
>just this  spring we have seen more beekills than 
>I can remember total in the  past 25 years 
>combined. Reports from many, many states have  
>been coming into this office in the past couple 
>of weeks. At  first they seemed isolated and 
>unsupported. Beekeepers are wary of  reporting 
>incidents, and seldom sure of how to proceed or 
>what  to do.
>
>The incidents this spring are not the symptoms  
>reported commonly as Colony Collapse Disorder, 
>where bees  disappear and a beekeeper returns to 
>what had been a strong healthy  hive only weeks 
>before and what's left is simply lots of brood,  
>a handful of young bees and a queenŠif anybody 
>is home at  all.
>
>No, the incidents this spring are differentŠthey  
>harken back to the days of massive beekills, 
>when plants in  bloom were sprayed on a routine 
>basis, when beekeepers would find  entire 
>apiaries wiped out, with pounds and pounds of 
>dead  bees, twisting, writhing and dying in front 
>of their hives. Piles of  dead, stinking bees 
>were common then, but with the advent of more  
>restrictive regulations and safer-to-use 
>pesticides, much, but  not all, of that 
>death-by-pesticide era has gone  away.
>
>Until now. This spring the ugly past has  
>returned. We were warned though. Purdue 
>researchers saw this  problem last year and 
>brought it to everybody's attention. Then they  
>looked deeper and further and saw that it wasn't 
>just a flook,  an accident, an anomaly, but 
>rather it has turned into an epidemic.  And they 
>brought that to our attention too.
>
>Simply,  pesticides, those troublesome 
>neonicotinoids, are applied to corn  seeds before 
>they are planted so when the corn begins to grow  
>the pesticide on the seed is absorbed by the new 
>roots and  fills the plant with poison for the 
>rest of its life. But the stuff is  sticky and 
>doesn't come out of the planters very well so  
>farmers supply a slippery additive in the form 
>of talcum  powder to make those seeds, in 
>airblast seed planters, simply fly  right out of 
>the drop chute and into the ground. But there's  
>the rub. That airblast planter is blowing all 
>that talcum  powder and loose pesticide dust 
>everywhereŠup into the air to travel  where ever 
>something as light weight as talcum powder can  
>travelŠfeet and yards and yards certainly, maybe 
>milesŠnobody  knows.
>
>But birds are dying. Robins and crows. And one  
>observer says that wildlife eating the seeds are 
>dyingŠthree  seeds will kill a quail is what I'm 
>hearing, but I don't know for  sure. I wouldn't 
>be surprised. But for beekeepers, what's  
>happening is that this poisonous dust is landing 
>on everything  downwindŠdandelions, flowers, 
>water surfaces, everywhere a honey bee  can go, 
>that's where this stuff is landing.
>
>How much of  it is going airborne? I don't have a 
>clue, but every seed is coated  with it, and you 
>know how big corn seeds are and there are about  
>30,000 seeds planted in an acreŠand there are, 
>this year,  96,000,000 acres of corn planted in 
>the U. S. And what I read is, is  that almost all 
>of those seeds are coated with something that  
>protects the plants. Know how big 96,000,000 
>acres isŠ.? It's  all of North Dakota and South 
>Dakota, combined. All of  that.
>
>But of course all those acres are spread out all  
>over the place. There are few places in this 
>country that are  not within drift distance from 
>these airborne poisons. Very, very few.  For 
>instanceŠNorth Dakota plans on 3.4 million acres 
>of corn  this yearŠthat's 5% of the entire state. 
>And recall, North Dakota is  the biggest honey 
>producer in the U. S. I'm thinking there's no  
>place to hide in that large, very flat state.
>
>If you  experience a beekill in your apiary this 
>spring DO NOT simply shrug  your shoulders and 
>feel there's nothing to be done. There is  
>something to be done.
>
>First, take picturesŠwith today's  newspaper 
>showing so you have a date. Get a witness in the  
>photo so you have someone else to verify your 
>incident. Video  a person collecting samples and 
>filling to half a plastic bag and  sealing the 
>bag. Freeze the sample as soon as possible. Call  
>you state apiary inspector and report the 
>incident. If your  state has a pesticide incident 
>reporting system in place, report it  there, too. 
>And tell the feds. There's two places to go.  
>First, do a direct to EPA email. They have a 
>system in place  to document these when reported. 
>The email  is
>
><mailto:beekill at EPA.gov>beekill at EPA.gov
>
>Tell  them what, where and when you found the 
>incident, attach a couple of  photos of the 
>scene, record the number of hives affected, the  
>date the incident occurred and any other 
>pertinent data you  can include. Tell them you 
>have taken samples, and that you have  reported 
>it to your state authorities. And tell them you 
>want  something done!
>
>When you finish that, go to this web  site
>
><http://npic.orst.edu/reportprob.html#env>http://npic.orst.edu/reportprob.h
tml#env
>
>the  National Pesticide Information Center's page 
>to report a pesticide  incident. And do it again.
>
>And then, one more  thing.
>
>Send this information to your local beekeeping  
>group, and to your state beekeeping association 
>and tell them  to put it on their web page, to 
>send out emails, to put it in  newsletters, to 
>get every beekeeper in this country up to speed  
>on what is killing our honey bees (heck, send it 
>to every  beekeeper you know and tell them to do 
>the same thing. Let EVERY  BEEKEEPER EVERYWHERE 
>KNOW!). This is something YOU CAN DO, whether  
>you never, ever have a problem or not. Help 
>protect honey  bees, and beekeepers from this, 
>and any other Pesticide  Incident.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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