Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Neonics especially hard on Queens? Revised

Here is another article citing research that confirms neonictinoid pesticides are especially hard on queen bees.  This article is mostly fluff without a lot of detail.  I will try to dig into the research further.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151013103118.htm

More details are available.  The results are in text and graphic form.  It shows that queens exposed to neonics had a 34% survival reduction compared to normal bees.  Maybe that's why I lost so many queens during the summer season.  To see the report scroll down in the above link.  Click on the report "10.1038/SREP14621".  For some reason I couldn't link up to this report any other way.

These articles mentioned two neonictinides; clothianidin and thiamethoxam.    Clothianidin is used on corn seed.  Not sure what the prime use of thiamethoxam.


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