Page 40 - 200806 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - June 2008

40 Last flight of the honeybee? 40 Last flight of the honeybee? Last flight of the Hackenberg, however, disagrees: "I've been 1999, the French government banned the use of Last flight of the honeybee? doing this 40-odd years. We've done all the Gaucho on sunflower crops after thousands took honeybee? to the streets in protest. Two further pesticides same things, but the rules have changed. Something's messing up." were banned because of their potential link to Hackenberg, 59, wears cowboy boots, a bee deaths. It appeared to stem the massive bee Continued from Page 39 Continued from Page 39 checked shirt and blue jeans. He even has a hard die-offs for a time, even though the hat in the shape of a Stetson, with netting manufacturers' own tests demonstrated there is Scientists around the world are trying to attached that he wears when unloading no correlation, and a long-term study by the pinpoint the culprit, but it is proving elusive. beehives. He began his own investigations into French food safety agency revealed no They have even set up an international network what killed 2,000 of his honeybees at the end of significant differences in death rates before and to monitor honeybee losses - a sort of Interpol 2006, by talking to growers and reading up on after pesticides were banned. This winter, bee for bees - which is operating out of Switzerland. pesticide use and research into their effects on deaths across France are reported to have shot Its coordinator, bee pathologist Dr Peter bees. "It's those new neonicotinoid pesticides up again to 60%. Neumann, blames a bloodsucking mite called that growers are using," he says. "That's what's Bayer is also being blamed by German varroa. Little bigger than a pinhead, it has messing up the bees' navigation system so they beekeepers for the eerie silence along the Rhine preyed on honeybees in Europe and the US can't find their way home." valley, where the buzzing of bees is a common since its arrival 30 years ago. Under a Honeybees have a sophisticated dance sound at this time of year. They say two-thirds microscope, the reddish-brown mite looks like a language they use to communicate with each of honeybees have been killed this month by the cross between a jellyfish and a Frisbee. It other in the hive. Until Karl von Frisch pesticide clothianidin, sold under the trade activates lethal viruses in honeybees and carries unlocked the mysteries of this dance - his name Poncho, which has been widely applied them from bee to bee when it feeds on their discovery won him a Nobel prize in 1973 - we on sweet corn. As a result of the bee deaths, blood, like a dirty syringe spreading HIV/Aids. didn't fully appreciate that bees returning to the eight pesticides, including clothianidin, have "It has to be the backbone of the problem," hive laden with nectar and pollen will tell their been temporarily suspended in Germany. Neumann says. "But it is probably not acting sisters (all worker bees are female) where they Anecdotal evidence of pesticide-related bee alone." got their supplies by doing a dance that points to deaths in Italy and Holland is also piling up. In the US, where the genetic code of the the location of the flowers in relation to the European beekeepers accuse scientists honeybee was unravelled by scientists two years sun's position. and government agencies of being in the pocket ago, they have been employing advanced Tests have shown that the pesticides of the chemical companies. It's a similar story in technology to discover if a new virus is Hackenberg refers to can interfere with the bees' the US, where scientists maintain that there is responsible for killing the bees. Genome communication and orientation skills, and also no correlation between the bees' disappearance sequencing techniques uncovered the DNA of a impair memory. and pesticide use. According to Hackenberg: virus called Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) With innocuous brand names such as "Big Ag has control of the USDA [the US that was found in almost all of the hives Gaucho, Assail and Merit, these pesticides are Department of Agriculture] from the secretary suffering from CCD. The discovery, published used worldwide, from sunflower fields to apple right down to the lowest guy on the totem pole." in Science, was hailed as a major breakthrough orchards, lawns to golf courses. The chemicals Jeff Pettis is not sure where he comes on in the investigation. But honeybees are riddled they contain are an artificial type of nicotine the pole. The senior manager at the federal bee with latent viruses. They become a problem and that acts as a neurotoxin that attacks insects' laboratory in Maryland, he's the man cause disease only when the bee's immune nervous systems on contact or ingestion. responsible for coordinating the US system is shot. Like humans, they are prone to Because it is systemic, the chemical moves government's response to CCD. Pettis advises illness when they are stressed and run-down. So throughout a plant, so if it is applied as a seed some beekeepers may do well to forgo the the real question is, what is making the bees too dressing, it will travel to the shoots, stem, leaves almond pollination and rest their bees. "You are weak to fight a virus? and flowers where bees can come into contact getting them ready for February when the The answer is probably overwork, with small doses. Many of these widely used sunlight hours and the temperature are telling coupled with various environmental factors that pesticides are classified by the US them it's too early in the year to be foraging at are the flipside of pollination on an industrial Environmental Protection Agency as "highly full strength," he says. scale and intensified food production. After toxic to bees" and come with a warning label Deceiving bees is an essential part of the Hackenberg's bees have pollinated the almonds intended to help prevent their exposure to the business. Beekeepers dupe them into thinking in California, they head north to the apple pollinators. it's already summer by moving them to warm orchards of Washington State, then east for the "It's in such small print that the growers locations in winter and feeding them an array of cranberries and pumpkins, before reaching don't see it," Hackenberg says. He accuses protein and energy supplements. The more food Maine in May to pollinate blueberries. In a year, farmers of "stacking" - or mixing - pesticides, that comes into the hive, the more eggs the they can cover 11,000 miles. It's a well-worn herbicides and fungicides. "No one has ever queen lays, to create more of the worker bees to route that's travelled by many of the 1,000 tested what happens to the toxicity if they do go out and pollinate. commercial beekeepers in America who mix, simply because the chemical companies The bee broker Joe Traynor says the between them own 90% of the country's 2.4 are not required to by law, but this combination deception goes much further than trucking bees million honeybee colonies. It is pollination, could be a thousand times more lethal than if the south. "We're interfering with their natural cycle rather than honey production, that keeps US chemicals are applied separately." because we want strong colonies for almond beekeepers in business. In 2007, honey In Britain, beekeeping is very small- pollination. We're stimulating hives in August, production was worth $160m to the US scale compared with the US. There are a few September and October, and making the queens economy, compared with pollination services hundred professional beekeepers, who run an do a lot more laying. As a result the queens are that have been estimated at $15bn. average of 100 hives each; only around 50 of suffering burnout. It used to be that a beekeeper Joe Traynor is a California bee broker. them transport bees to orchards, usually over could pretty much leave his bees alone during From a small office in a quiet side street in distances of 25 or so miles, rather than across a winter. That's no longer the case." downtown Bakersfield, on the southern tip of continent. Many orchards provide a year-round Moreover, scientists funded by the Central Valley, he runs a lucrative business home for hives kept by amateur beekeepers, so Almond Board of California are now matching almond growers with beekeepers. I there is no need for migratory beekeepers. But experimenting with artificial pheromones that put to him that surely all this moving around of in this country, as in the rest of Europe, it is hard trick bees into thinking there are more larvae in bees, confined to their hives for long periods, to escape pesticides and the varroa mite. the hive that need feeding, so they forage more, must be stressful for them. He admits that too In France, beekeepers have for more and in the process pollinate more almond much travel is not good for their health: "When than a decade waged a war against the chemical blossom. you're trucking bees, they need sleep, just as giant Bayer CropScience. They hold humans do, and the bumping around in the truck responsible the company's bestselling pesticide, Continued on Page 43 for two to three days keeps them awake, and this imidacloprid, trade name Gaucho, for killing a lowers their resistance to pests and disease." third of the country's 1.5 million colonies. In www.xzoneradio.com - Dare To Believe