Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 11 July 2017

Large study links key pesticide to weakened honeybee hives

BY SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — A
common and much-crit-
icized pesticide dramati-
cally weakens already vul-
nerable honeybee hives,
according to a new mas-
sive field study in three Eu-
ropean countries.
For more than a decade,
the populations of honey-
bees and other key pollina-
tors have been on the de-
cline, and scientists have
been trying to figure out
what’s behind the drop,
mostly looking at a com-
bination of factors that in-
clude disease, parasites,
poor diet and pesticides.
Other studies, mostly lab
experiments, have point-
ed to problems with the
insecticides called neo-
nicotinoids, but the new
research done in Britain,
Hungary and Germany is
the largest field study yet.
Researchers planted
about 7.7 square miles In this May 27, 2015, file photo, volunteer Ben Merritt, a graduate student at the University of Cincinnati, checks honeybee hives for
(2,000 hectares) of fields of queen activity and performs routine maintenance as part of a collaboration between the Cincinnati Zoo and TwoHoneys Bee Co.,
rapeseed, which is made in Mason, Ohio.
into cooking oil, called Associated Press
canola in America. Some
of the fields were planted through the next winter, the healthier to start and when plants, compared to more died, in both treated and
with seeds treated with researchers found. In Hun- scientists analyzed the pol- than 50 percent in Hungary untreated fields, that scien-
the insecticide, others with gary, the honeybee colo- len brought back to the and England, he said. tists couldn’t calculate the
untreated seeds. The re- nies near treated fields had hives, they determined that When hives are weakened specific effect of the insec-
searchers followed bees 24 percent fewer worker the German bees ate a far by disease, parasites or ticide, he said. The same
from the spring of 2015 bees the next spring when broader diet with much less bad diet — as many hives study also found that wild
when the seeds flowered compared to those near of their nutrition coming are worldwide — then the bees were also weakened
to the following spring untreated crops, accord- from the pesticide-treated neonicotinoids “pushes by the insecticide, but in
when new bees were born. ing to a study published rapeseed plants, said study them over the edge,” said a bit different ways, Pywell
The bee hives in the Hun- Thursday in the journal Sci- director Richard Pywell. Pywell, a scientist at the said. And for wild and hon-
garian and British fields that ence . But in Germany, the Only about 10 percent of Center for Ecology and eybees, one neonicotinoid
used pesticide-treated bees didn’t seem harmed. the German bee diet was Hydrology in England. So brand seemed to cause
seeds did worse surviving Hives there were generally from neonicotinoid-treated many of the British hives greater harm.q