BANFF, Alta. – A silent killer is sweeping through honey bee colonies,
leaving up to 60 percent of the hives dead.
Frustrated beekeepers blame the insecticide imidacloprid, yet
scientific research has not proven a link.
Canadian Honey Council president Dave MacMillan said losses range from
50 to 80 percent. He has not experienced bee losses on his northern
Ontario farm, but worries that could start if local farmers begin
spraying soybeans with imidacloprid-based pesticides.
“It is very expensive to replace entire colonies of bees that have
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mysteriously died,” he said.
While research has failed to substantiate farmers’ claims, they argue
that circumstantial evidence shows there is a connection. A delegate to
the honey council’s recent meeting in Banff said that if the chemical
effectively kills beetles, it likely has the same effect on bees.
A major study last summer in Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick
found no chemical residue in potato fields.
Led by researchers Dick Rogers of Wildwood Labs in Nova Scotia and Jim
Kemp of the University of P.E.I., the study was backed by government,
universities, beekeepers and Bayer Inc., which manufactures pesticides
containing imidacloprid.
Pesticides are applied in potato furrows and taken up in the potatoes’
root systems to fight Colorado potato beetles.
The study covered 18 different sites where researchers collected
samples of bees, soil, hives, nectar, pollen, clover and wildflowers.
There were 3,800 soil core samples, 6,000 bees and 6,400 pieces of
plant leaves and flowers.
“All came back with no detectable levels of imidacloprid,” Rogers said.
Minute residues of less than two parts per billion were found in some
soil core samples.
Further questions arose when local apiarists were interviewed. Some
reported substantial losses while others said they had no problems.
“These are experienced beekeepers who are having problems,” Kemp said.
“It doesn’t make sense why one field is having problems and another is
not.”
Imidacloprid is a systemic chemical and is the active ingredient in a
number of pesticides, including Admire, Advantage, Gaucho, Marathon and
Premier.
Rogers and Kemp said research must continue in the hives, but
scientists must also conduct a broader search for other causes.
Don Dixon, chair of the honey council’s research committee, said his
committee wants to meet with pesticide manufacturers and approval
agencies before new pesticides are released.
Beekeepers are convinced there is a connection, he added, but without
an open dialogue with pesticide companies, they have a difficult time
making their case.
“It is very difficult to determine how bees could be killed by a
product that can’t be found,” Dixon said.
