[Pollinator] New article about Wilsonville bumble bee kill

[Matthew Shepherd]

Eight years ago, during Pollinator Week 2013, a pesticide poisoning
incident unfurled that turned out to be the largest documented kill of
bumble bees in the US. Linden trees (Tilia sp.) in the parking lot of a big
box store in Wilsonville, OR, had been treated with dinotefuran, a
neonicotinoid. This was expressed in the trees’ nectar, resulting in the
tarmac being carpeted with thousands of dying bumble bees.


The Oregon Department of Agriculture investigated, and established a link
between the treatment and the bumble bee deaths


An article about the incident has just been published in Environmental
Entomology.


Neonicotinoid Pesticides Cause Mass Fatalities of Native Bumble Bees: A
Case Study From Wilsonville, Oregon, United States

https://academic.oup.com/ee/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ee/nvab059/6305931


>From the abstract:

“we estimate that between 45,830 and 107,470 bumble bees originating from
between 289 and 596 colonies were killed during this event.”

“the minimum reported dinotefuran concentration of a sampled T. cordata
flower was 7.4 ppm, or in excess of 737% above the LC50 of the beneficial
pollinator, the honey bee”


Matthew
-- 
Matthew Shepherd
Director of Communications & Outreach
(he/him/his)

THE XERCES SOCIETY
for Invertebrate Conservation

Protecting the life that sustains us

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