[Pollinator] Fwd: [New post] Honeybees and Corn 2016

Fri Sep 9 19:29:39 PDT 2016

Hi all, 

Have faith! Don’t be swayed from the truth. There will always be deniers. Some people deny climate change, the effects of DDT, caffeine in coffee, you name it. Maybe they are just contrarians; maybe they don’t read the literature, maybe they believe only what they have had experience with...or been told. 

Just to shake up faith in the truth, big dirty, dishonest, immensely wealthy companies like Monsanto have been known to plant articles in the press. If you want to have a nightmare, think about Bayer and Monsanto joining forces against...all the rest of us.
Some information:
Neonics are systemic pesticides. Unlike contact pesticides, which remain on the surface of the treated foliage, systemics are taken up by the plant and transported to all the tissues (leaves, flowers, roots and stems, as well as pollen and nectar).
Neonicotinoids - the PAN UK Bees Site - Pesticide Action Network UK
bees.pan-uk.org/neonicotinoids

The preponderance of evidence—even the EPA had to admits it—shows that neonics cause massive numbers of honey bee deaths. 

“EPA Confirms Honey Bee Exposure to Hazardous Pesticides.” http://www.beyondpesticides.org/assets/media/documents/ImidaclopridFiveCited.pdf

http://www.honeycolony.com/article/shedding-light-3-big-lies-systemic-pesticides/

Peace, Barbara

From: Stephanie Parreira 
Sent: Friday, September 09, 2016 5:42 PM
To: Laurie Adams 
Cc: pollinator at nappc.org 
Subject: Re: [Pollinator] Fwd: [New post] Honeybees and Corn 2016
This is a highly over-simplified opinion about the neonicotinoid problem. I would have further questions for the above person, such as, are there weather differences between the region where the colonies died and the place your colonies are (windy conditions can blow neonic-laden dust into colonies and onto foraging bees, so if one place is windier than the other, bee exposure and response may be different)? Is the area of planted corn significantly different from the area of corn in Ontario (more corn planted = more potential exposure to neonics and less alternative forage)? 

Anecdotal evidence will do no one any good, whether that anecdotal evidence argues against neonicotinoid use or for it. We should take things like this with a grain of salt and understand that there are many factors at play that may increase the potential of pesticides to severely affect honey bee colonies.  I am not saying that beekeeper practices cannot be improved to increase colony survival, but to blame beekeeping practices without any comparison or contrast between beekeeping practices, landscape and foraging environment, and pesticide exposure (in-hive or forager residues), it is irresponsible to jump to this conclusion.

(Furthermore, even if neonicotinoids are not the issue for honey bee colonies specifically, we should still be concerned about their many detrimental effects on native bee populations, which have been demonstrated in the scientific literature time and time again.)

On Thu, Sep 8, 2016 at 7:24 AM, Laurie Adams <lda at pollinator.org> wrote:

  ---------- Forwarded message ----------
  From: John Purdy <johnrpurdy at gmail.com>
  Date: Thu, Sep 8, 2016 at 6:59 AM
  Subject: Fwd: [New post] Honeybees and Corn 2016
  To: Laurie Adams <LDA at pollinator.org>

  Here is an important observation from a beekeeper in western Canada.  It helps to build confidence in what I found in my recent bee health study. perhaps it is worth posting. (a section is a mile square or 640 acres) 

  John

  ---------- Forwarded message ----------
  From: Alberta Buzzing <donotreply at wordpress.com>
  Date: Sun, Sep 4, 2016 at 10:40 PM
  Subject: [New post] Honeybees and Corn 2016
  To: johnrpurdy at gmail.com

        Lee Townsend posted: "I had a yard of 40 hives on a quarter section of treated corn this year, and it is interesting as I am not seeing any of the effects on the bees that groups like the Ontario Beekeepers Association claims to take place in this situation.  My bees are of th"  
                          New post on Alberta Buzzing    

                                  Honeybees and Corn 2016
                                by Lee Townsend  

                                I had a yard of 40 hives on a quarter section of treated corn this year, and it is interesting as I am not seeing any of the effects on the bees that groups like the Ontario Beekeepers Association claims to take place in this situation.  My bees are of the same species that are in Ontario, the corn is treated the same way as it is in Ontario, and the planting was done the same as in Ontario.

                                Leads me to think the problem is not neonics, but beekeeper management.  It is truly unfortunate that the Ontario Beekeepers Association and groups like it refuse to admit what exactly they are doing with their colonies, with proof to back up their claims.

                                Lee Townsend | September 4, 2016 at 8:40 pm | URL: http://wp.me/p5JjBC-1X 

                                Comment    See all comments 

                          Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Alberta Buzzing.
                          Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. 

                          Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: 
                          http://albertabuzzing.com/2016/09/honeybees-and-corn-2016/ 

  -- 

  John Purdy PhD 
  Environmental Scientist
  Abacus Consulting Services Ltd

  This message including any attachments is confidential to Abacus Consulting Services Limited.  Any other recipient must destroy the message and immediately notify the sender.

  _______________________________________________
  Pollinator mailing list
  Pollinator at lists.sonic.net
  https://lists.sonic.net/mailman/listinfo/pollinator

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Pollinator mailing list
Pollinator at lists.sonic.net
https://lists.sonic.net/mailman/listinfo/pollinator

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sonic.net/pipermail/pollinator/attachments/20160909/4e67cd7c/attachment-0001.html>