New pesticides are 'killing honeybee population worldwide'
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 2:31 PM on 20th January 2011
Last updated at 2:31 PM on 20th January 2011
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Honeybees are being wiped out by a new generation of pesticides that has left them far more vulnerable to disease, according to the U.S. government's leading bee researcher.
Dr Jeffrey Pettis discovered that chemicals routinely used on maize, oil seep rape and garden plants are weakening colonies.
He presented his findings to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Bee Research Laboratory, but they controversially remained unpublished for two years.
Dying? Honeybees are being wiped out by new pesticides that have left them far more vulnerable to disease, the top U.S. bee expert has warned
'My research was completed almost two years ago but it has been too long in getting out,' Dr Pettis told the Independent.
'I have submitted my manuscript to a new journal but cannot give a publication date or share more of this with you at this time.'
His research raises questions over the use of neo-nicotine insecticides that are increasingly being used on crops around the world, including in Britain.
The pesticides are relatively new compounds so their involvement would explain the sudden collapse of bee colonies internationally.
Dr Pettis found that bees' vulnerability to infection is increased by imidacloprid, even at tiny doses. Imidacloprid is German chemicals giant Bayer's best-selling insecticide in 2009 and a product that made the firm £510million that year.
More than 1.4million acres in the UK were treated with imidacloprid in 2008; total neo-nicotine insecticide use for that year covered 2.5million acres, which is about a quarter of Britain's total crops land.
Neo-nicotine insecticides attack the central nervous system and are absorbed by every part of plants that are treated with them. Bees and other pollinating insects can absorb them and carry them back to their hives or nests
Neo-nicotine insecticides attack the central nervous system and are absorbed by every part of plants that are treated with them.
Therefore bees and other pollinating insects can absorb them and carry them back to their hives or nests.
Over the last few years, scientists have been baffled by the bee crisis in Britain, America and Europe which has seen numbers plummet in a decade.
In 2008 nearly a fifth of British colonies were wiped out - more than double the 'acceptable' levels, according to beekeepers. The previous year, one in three colonies failed to survive the winter.
Some keepers say Britain is starting to suffer from colony collapse disorder - a mysterious affliction that has devastated America since 2004.
Victims of colony collapse disorder see entire hives disappear over the winter, leaving behind empty nests.
Neo-nicotine pesticides were introduced to replace controversial organo phosphates because they appear to be harmless to mammals and people.
Honey bees are essential for British farmers and are thought to contribute around £200million to the economy by pollinating crops on farms, allotments and in gardens.
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