Gaston County
Beekeeper’s
Association
Next Meeting Jan. 28th
7 pm Citizens Resource
Center Dallas, NC
Minnesota Takes Steps to Protect Bees, Beekeepers Demand
Stronger Action
(Beyond Pesticides, January 21, 2013) Two Minnesota state agencies are
creating plans they say will address declining pollinator populations in the
state. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is
developing best management practices for managing and increasing
pollinator habitat and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is
developing a plan to study the impacts of neonicotinoid pesticides on
pollinators. Critics of the state’s plan say that there is no more need to
study the effects of neonicotinoids because the negative impacts they have
on pollinators has been already studied extensively.
The DNR is developing guidelines to improve habitat for pollinator insects.
Recent reports show that the planting of herbicide-resistant genetically
engineered (GE) crops is responsible for habitat loss and the decline of
native pollinators like the Monarch butterfly. The expansion of glyphosate
tolerant GE corn and soybean cropland has allowed farmers to kill
milkweed, the primary source of food for Monarchs, which historically grew
between crop rows in the Midwest. A rapid expansion of farmland —more
than 25 million new acres in the U.S. since 2007— has also eaten away
grasslands and conservation reserves that supplied the Monarchs with
milkweed. DNR officials have indicated this guide could change where
grassland is burned or mowed, or add more plants as habitats for
pollinators. DNR may also work in the future with the Minnesota
Department of Transportation (MnDOT) to incorporate native wildflowers
into roadside right-of-ways to increase pollinator habitat.
The MDA also gave the Legislature a report on Wednesday outlining,
among other issues, a plan to study the use of neonicotinoids and their
impacts on pollinators. The report was developed in response to the 2013
Pollinator Legislation H.F. 976. The specific risk neonicotinoids pose to
pollinators will be the focus of the review, and will include a summary of
research into neonicotinoid hazards to a variety of pollinator species in crop
production and garden/landscape settings, and the related risks of
biodiversity maintenance and ecological balance in natural ecosystems.
The review will also include an overview of the effects residue
accumulation in pollen, nectar, guttation droplets, and other pollinator
exposure pathways associated with treated plants. According to MDA,
special chemical reviews can take six months or more. Though it is
important for states to take action to study these chemicals beyond the
flawed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registration
process, extensive scientific research has already assessed the
hazards that these chemicals pose to pollinator species.
Steve Ellis, owner of Old Mill Honey Co. in Minnesota, expressed his
frustration in a Public New Service article, saying, “We’ve already got 150
scientific papers that implicate the neonicitinoids in the bee decline. I’m not
really sure we need more than that. It’s time in the United States that we
took action, and I would hope that the Minnesota Department of Agriculture
would step up to the plate and become proactive.”
Neonicotinoids are a relatively new class of insecticides that share a
common mode of action that affect the central nervous system of insects,
resulting in paralysis and death. They include
imidacloprid, acetamiprid, clothianidin, dinotefuran,
nithiazine, thiacloprid andthiamethoxam. Currently, neonicotinoid
insecticides are the most widely used class of insecticides in the world and
compromise about 25% of the global agrichemical market.
Neonicotinoids are systemic, meaning that as the plant grows the pesticide
becomes incorporated into the plant. When honey bees and other
pollinators forage and collect pollen or nectar, or drink from what are
termed “guttation” (water) droplets emitted from neonicotinoid-incorporated
crops, they are exposed to sublethal doses of the chemical. At this level,
the pesticides don’t kill bees outright. Instead, they impair bees’ ability to
learn, to find their way back to the hive, to collect food, to produce new
queens, and to mount an effective immune response.
Beyond Pesticides through its BEE Protective campaign works with
national and local groups to protect honey bees and other pollinators from
pesticides and contaminated landscapes. As part of this campaign,
Recently, Beyond Pesticides, as part of coalition, launched a national
advertising campaign to raise awareness of pollinator declines and urge
EPA to stop stalling by enacting substantive restrictions on the use of beeharming pesticides. To support our efforts to restrict bee-toxic pesticides,
visit save-bees.org and sign the petition to EPA Administrator Gina
McCarthy.
Source: CrookstonTimes
March 6-8, 2014
NCSBA Spring Meeting
Hosted by
New Hanover County Beekeepers
at
Wilmington Convention Center
Wilmington, NC 28401
Advance Registration Deadline is February 27th!
Registration Fees
Individual
Advance Registration:
$25
At-the-door:
$35
Non-members additional *
$15*
Family
$35
$45
$15*
* pays 2014 NCSBA membership for one person.
Forms can be found at http://www.ncbeekeepers.org/spr2014.htm
Tiny technology creates a buzz
Posted: January 15, 2014 | Author: Carol Saab
Bee with a backpack… of the sensor variety.
By Adam Harper
What if I told you that insects in the environment may be able to tell us about the
world they live in? Imagine it; they could reveal changes in climate, the presence of
dangerous gases or even the arrival of pests. Now you might think this a flight of fancy
and tell me to buzz off, but this may not be so far from reality.
Our new research project is using tiny sensors that act like your car’s e-tag and
attaching them to the backs of honey bees.
What the?
You heard right – bees with a chip on their shoulder, or on their back at least.
These tiny 2.5mm x 2.5mm chips relay data to recorders placed around hives and
known food sources. We’re not talking about one or two wired up insects here, 5,000
tags are currently being attached to honey bees in Hobart and released into the
natural environment.
And why would our researchers do that?
Collecting bee movement information at this scale is a world first and will allow
researchers to generate a four dimensional model (three dimensions over time) of bee
behavior and the way these insects move through the landscape. This information is
needed on a global scale as wild honey bee populations are dropping drastically or
vanishing all together. In some instances this is because of the parasitic Varroa mite.
In others it’s a case of Colony Collapse Disorder, which is believed to be caused by
diseases and agricultural pesticides.
CSIRO’s Dr Paulo de Souza leads the project and talks about why it is so important to
protect these often feared insects.
“Honey bees play an extremely important role in our daily lives. Around one third of
the food we eat relies on pollination and this is a free service these insects provide. A
recent CSIRO study showed that honey bees helped increase faba been yield by up to
17 per cent. Knowing how bees interact with their environment will allow farmers,
fruit growers and seed producers to manage their properties using honey bees to
increase productivity,” says Dr de Souza.
Did you know GCBA has a library?
The following books are available to check out one month at time – this may not be up to
date:
The Beekeeper’s Handbook
Diana Sammataro
The Hive Detectives:Chronicles of a Honey Bee Catastrophe Loree Griffin Burns
Why Do Bees Buzz? Eilzabeth Evans
Starting Right with Bees
Kim Flottum et al.
The ABC & XYZ of Bee Culture
A.I. Root
Honey Bee Diseases and Pests ?
Queen Rearing Essentials
Lawrence John Connor
Natural Beekeeping
The Honey Bee Inside Out
Celia Davis
Keith S. Delaplane
Ross Conrad
First Lessons in Beekeeping
The Compleat Meadmaker
Ken Schramm