Neonic research

[brothermoo]

Hope I'm not duplicating a thread but spotted this on reddit today...

http://m.deltafarmpress.com/cotton/n...g-plant-pollen

Interested to see the results for other crops like OSR

___________________________________
sent from my smartphone.. although it doesn't filter my not-so-smart comments

[Jon]

The only really clear cut damage from neonics that everyone can agree on is the dust cloud produced from seed drilling corn.
There have been several major incidents causing significant numbers of colonies to be lost. Germany in 2008 and Canada in 2012 linked planter dust clouds to the loss of hundreds of colonies.
Canada harvested over 20 million acres of oil seed rape last year and most Canadian honey comes from this crop.
Oil seed Rape seed is almost 100% treated with the neonicotinoids Tiamethoxam and Clothianidin.
If there were dangerous levels of neonic expressed in the pollen there would hardly be a colony left alive in Canada.

[mbc]

The only really clear cut damage from neonics that everyone can agree on

I thought we were all coming round to agree that the bumbles were hit hardest ?
Dramatically less queens produced per nest, IIRC in comparative tests done on neonic and non neonic OSR in Scandinavia. I'll try and dig out the link.

[gavin]

I thought we were all coming round to agree that the bumbles were hit hardest ?

Also that solitary bees may be hit harder. There was some anecdote recently (from Finland) that Osmia failed to reproduce when on neonic-treated OSR.

Anyway, back to the article Brothermoo cited. It gives a false impression. Neonics certainly are found in pollen, there are plenty of studies that show that. The arguments concern whether or not these levels are doing damage. For once the comments under the Delta Farm Press article are quite sensible.

[Jon]

Sorry, should have worded that better. I was only thinking of honeybees. I agree there may be more of an issue with bumbles.

[mbc]

Also that solitary bees made be hit harder. There was some anecdote recently (from Finland) that Osmia failed to reproduce when on neonic-treated OSR.

I think we must have heard/read the same anecdote Gavin, as my googleing has just left me thinking the research I was going to link to is imaginary !

[gavin]

I think we must have heard/read the same anecdote Gavin, as my googleing has just left me thinking the research I was going to link to is imaginary !

Preliminary reports from studies being conducted in Sweden and Finland:

http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/w...;18189d8a.1402

G.

PS Just some perspective. Osmia rufa appears to have spread locally in recent years and in some years is abundant. I find it in unused beekeeping equipment where small gaps suit its nesting preference such as where roof meets crownboard. It is also present in old walls on the estate, and also in the walls of the house I used to live in a km or so away. Both sites have OSR fields within a few hundred metres, but these bees may be short-range foragers and so not be affected by the OSR fields in the area. I've also been called out to collect 'swarms' of these in cottage roofs in villages surrounded by arable agriculture with OSR.

[Jon]

Gav. Do you know who the authors of that study are?

[gavin]

'fraid not. All I know was in that Bee-L post by Ari Seppälä

While Googling for the answer this turned up, interesting background from the point of view of the grower (actually the grower's adviser).

http://www.sruc.ac.uk/info/120101/cr...act_on_growers

There is a talk on the same subject from an employee of SASA tomorrow at the Crop Protection in Northern Britain conference.

[HJBee]

This was forwarded to me on Facebook today
http://mobile.dudamobile.com/site/pr...ies.shtml#2662