Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Friday 30 June 2017

Large study links key pesticide to weakened honeybee hives

BY SETH BORENSTEIN dian studies show that neo-
AP Science Writer nicotinoids harm bees, but
WASHINGTON (AP) — A still may not quite be the
common and much-crit- leading cause of bee loss-
icized pesticide dramati- es, said University of Mary-
cally weakens already vul- land entomologist Den-
nerable honeybee hives, nis vanEngelsdorp, who
according to a new mas- wasn’t part of the study.
sive field study in three Eu- “The problem remains
ropean countries. complex, like cancer,”
For more than a decade, vanEngelsdorp said in
the populations of honey- an email. Neonicotinoids
bees and other key pollina- makers Bayer and Syngen-
tors have been on the de- ta paid for the European
cline, and scientists have study but had no control
been trying to figure out over the results or the pub-
what’s behind the drop, lished paper, Pywell said.
mostly looking at a com- Company officials pointed
bination of factors that in- to the results in Germany
clude disease, parasites, and the lack of harm to
poor diet and pesticides. hives there. “The study
Other studies, mostly lab shows that when hives are
experiments, have point- healthy and relatively dis-
ed to problems with the ease free and when bees
insecticides called neo- have access to diverse
nicotinoids, but the new In this May 27, 2015, file photo, volunteer Ben Merritt, a graduate student at the University of forage, neonics do not
research done in Britain, Cincinnati, checks honeybee hives for queen activity and performs routine maintenance as pose a danger to colony
part of a collaboration between the Cincinnati Zoo and TwoHoneys Bee Co., in Mason, Ohio.
Hungary and Germany is health,” Bayer spokesman
the largest field study yet. ter, the researchers found. rapeseed plants, said study specific effect of the insec- Jeffrey Donald wrote in an
Researchers planted In Hungary, the honey- director Richard Pywell. ticide, he said. email.
about 7.7 square miles bee colonies near treated Only about 10 percent of The same study also found In a statement, Syngenta’s
(2,000 hectares) of fields of fields had 24 percent fewer the German bee diet was that wild bees were also Peter Campbell, head of
rapeseed, which is made worker bees the next spring from neonicotinoid-treated weakened by the insecti- research collaborations,
into cooking oil, called when compared to those plants, compared to more cide, but in a bit different said the study “strongly
canola in America. near untreated crops, ac- than 50 percent in Hungary ways, Pywell said. suggests the effects of ne-
Some of the fields were cording to a study pub- and England, he said. And for wild and honey- onicotinoids are a product
planted with seeds treated lished Thursday in the jour- When hives are weakened bees, one neonicotinoid of interacting factors.”q
with the insecticide, oth- nal Science . by disease, parasites or brand seemed to cause
ers with untreated seeds. But in Germany, the bees bad diet — as many hives greater harm.
The researchers followed didn’t seem harmed. are worldwide — then the Europe banned neonic-
bees from the spring of Hives there were generally neonicotinoids “pushes otinoids, or neonics, in 2013
2015 when the seeds flow- healthier to start and when them over the edge,” said and researchers needed
ered to the following spring scientists analyzed the pol- Pywell, a scientist at the a special exemption to do
when new bees were born. len brought back to the Center for Ecology and Hy- their study.
The bee hives in the Hun- hives, they determined that drology in England. Another study in the jour-
garian and British fields the German bees ate a far So many of the British hives nal, also finds problems
that used pesticide-treat- broader diet with much less died, in both treated and with neonicotinoids in a
ed seeds did worse surviv- of their nutrition coming untreated fields, that scien- study in Canada.
ing through the next win- from the pesticide-treated tists couldn’t calculate the The European and Cana-