AMERICAN RESEARCH TEAM FIND 46 DIFFERENT PESTICIDES IN CCD COLONIES

Dr Maryann Frazier’s team has been studying 92 CCD colonies from all over the USA. They examined pollen, brood and wax samples from the hives and analysed them for a very wide range of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides.

They found an alarming total of 46 different pesticides in the affected colonies.

Nurse bees feeding larvae in my hives – July 4th 2008

In one single hive they found seventeen different pesticides.

The average number of pesticides they found per hive was five

Of 108 pollen samples analysed – only three did not contain pesticides.

CONCERN OVER FLUVALINATES (Bayvarol & Apistan strips)

The team found high levels of fluvalinate in wax samples from the CCD affected hives; in some case the levels of contamination were so high that they were close to the LD50 level for bees (the dosage at which 50% of exposed bees would die). The team also point out that the modern forumulation of ‘Tau-fluvalinate’ is more than twice as toxic as the original licensed product; moreover they detected an ‘amplification’ effect when a particular fungicide was present along with fluvalinate – which increased the toxicity by almost ‘one thousand times’.

Abstract:

“As found in pollen, fluvalinate, coumaphos and chlorpyrifos were the most
commonly detected pesticides with fluvali-nate and coumaphos being detected in 100% of the samples. survival. In addition, Piperonyl butoxide (PBO) (a pesticide synergist often added to formulations of pyrethroids to increase their potency) can be found in frequent use around urban apiaries. With or without the addition of PBO or other adjuvants, fluvalinate is now considered to be a highly toxic material to honey bees. Based on its prevalence in wax, wide-spread resistance in varroa and its toxicity to honey bees, fluvalinate appears to have outlived is usefulness.”

FULL ARTICLE BY MARYANN FRAZIER OF PENN STATE UNIVERSITY

WHAT HAVE PESTICIDES GOT TO DO WITH CCD? (download PDF document)

View or download the article (pdf file) by clicking on the link above.