another case of bee hijacking
This is attributed to the soil association. Although I have some sympathy with the desire to increase pollinator forage and habitat there seems to be a lot of assumptions here dressed up as fact.
http://www.foodnavigator.com/Science...5e0kSPNg%3D%3D
I hope the long link works
Well, let me come off the fence here. Peter Melchett is a busted flush on pollinators as far as I'm concerned. As a farmer telling the Environmental Audit Committee last year this garbage I can't see why the Soil Association still want him making utterances in public.
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http://www.publications.parliament.u...8/121121am.htm
Q78 Chair: Worst case scenario-and everyone is concerned about food security and food supply-were pollinator numbers to decline so dramatically, is the large-scale manual pollination of crops feasible in the UK? A very quick answer.
Peter Melchett: I farm organically. We grow peas and vetch for seed and they both need pollinating by insects. I can tell you, if you have a gang of people walking across my pea crop they may pollinate them but there would not be any crop left. It is completely, economically and physically, a ridiculous impossible idea.
Aye, right! Ridiculous, eh? Any farmer out there want to pay me for pea pollination services? He could have chosen from a longish list of crops that do need pollinators, but his peas will not be one.
And a little later:
Q79 Mr Spencer: To go back and explore this, let us imagine that we are going to stop using this chemical and we are going to use foliar applied chemicals. Can we establish whether you think that would be worse or better than the current situation? If we reached the stage where we removed those foliar-based insecticides, what would be the impact on food prices and crop yields?
Peter Melchett: I would say that this catastrophic decline in honeybees and wild pollinators appears to coincide with the introduction of systemic chemicals, and in particular the neonicotinoids in the seed dressings, which-as you heard in the previous session-are now ubiquitous, so they are not used on a need-to-use basis, they are used as a precautionary application on all, for example, the rape seed. Going back to more selective use of sprayed insecticides would certainly be better. If you look at the historical evidence when those chemicals were in use, bees and wild pollinators were not disappearing at the rate they are now, which is why I dispute this idea that there is some trade-off, which would make things worse. It is unsupported by any evidence, or any peer-reviewed science at all. It is simply a slogan.
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Anyone else noticed what a bumper spring for bumble bees we're having in this last neonic-soaked spring before the moratorium? I'm seeing nest-seeking queens everywhere, all the common species (B. terrestris, lucorum, pascuorum, pratorum and lapidarius) seem common this spring. I noted Peter Edwards of Warwickshire also commenting elsewhere on the health of the bumble bee populations this year. Almost as perky as those damn wasps! Is this UK-wide?
But back to the article. IPM is failing, apparently, because it isn't organic. The logic seems to be ... much of the UK's agriculture is apparently claimed to be IPM, the bees are still plummeting (on no evidence that I've seen, but wishful thinking is a wonderful thing), and therefore our own variant of IPM (the one that needs Soil Association certification) has to be the answer.
With a rant like that I really should put myself in the naughty corner and at the very least consign this thread to the 'Environmental' section. If Neil or Emma feel like doing that to me while I'm out at the beekeeping meeting, please go ahead!
Last edited by gavin; 06-05-2014 at 06:25 PM.
Anyone else noticed what a bumper spring for bumble bees we're having in this last neonic-soaked spring before the moratorium? I'm seeing nest-seeking queens everywhere, all the common species (B. terrestris, lucorum, pascuorum, pratorum and lapidarius) seem common this spring. I noted Peter Edwards of Warwickshire also commenting elsewhere on the health of the bumble bee populations this year. Almost as perky as those damn wasps! Is this UK-wide?
A bumper number of bumble queens in N Staffordshire.. And queen wasps.. And midges. And ladybirds. And early butterflies.
Must be the neonics ban err.. I'll get my coat.
South Lincs too. Never seen so many bumbles - all different colours and sizes. Butterfiles too, and ladybirds. All-in-all, things look pretty-good to me ... but then, what do I know ?
I have killed 8 queen wasps in the past 48 hours who were dumb enough to go sniffing around my shed while I was working in it.
I keep Apideas in the garden so that will be 8 less wasp nests having a go at them in August
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Ah, but according to Karol ont'other place that will mean 240 million tons of extra greenfly in your garden.Originally Posted by Jon
I'll just shovel them all out. On the other hand Karol might be talking boll*cks.
Lots of bumble queens up my way this year including in my tree sparrow nest boxes....and plenty queen wasps although they are pollinating my gooseberries so will let them off just now.
Got up this morning, went to the bathroom, fat ass Wasp sat on the loo waiting for me
I've noticed some Butterflies and Bumbles flitting about in Paisley, not many, but considering I only saw one Bumble last year it's a definite improvement.
I'm Paul btw, pleased to meet you all.
I've lost count of the wasp numbers I've killed, they have been hiding in my hive roofs, shed and greenhouse. Get pleasure out of the crunch noise they make as the hive tool gets them. Lots of white tailed bumble bees about nest hunting. Even found a birds nest being constructed inside one of my nuc boxes, it was a blue tit that was just able to get in the entrance
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