Pesticides are killing bees for over a decade.
(Mirror Daily, United States) – Recent research has shown that there has been a massive bee decline over the last years in the US. However, entomologists seem to have finally found a cause.
The latest study has shown that not only the pesticides used by farmers are responsible, but also the sprays used by households to deal with insects. It means that people are not aware of the fact that they keep killing bees.
According to Professor Christian Krupke from Purdue University and Professor Elizabeth Long from the Ohio State University and co-author of the research, the data gathered after a 16 week period showed the exact sources of pollutants in the collected pollen.
After studying three hives from distinct areas, they established that the ones situated in areas with non-pesticide use were exposed to the exact level of pesticides discovered in areas where the pesticide was highly used.
Plus, they learned that the pollen collected from crop plants represented only a small part of all pollen resources. Therefore, the most of bees’ pollen originated from non-crop sources.
According to Dr. Krupke, there was a high amount of pesticide discovered in pollen samples. Nevertheless, urban landscape and homeowners have also a destructive influence related to the bee decline. In addition to this, the highest level of toxicity was found in pyrethroids, which are usually common pesticides used to deal with household pests.
Moreover, Purdue scientists found pollen from 30 plant families which contained nine chemical classes of pesticides, the neonics included, which are commonly used on soybeans and corn. Lowe’s, Home Depot and other garden centers have previously pledged against this pesticide as well. Furthermore, it was established that the plants were infused with neonics by farmers, turning them toxic and deadly to insects.
Even if honeybees do not rely on crop plants such as soybean and corn, they still collect most of their pollen from gardens, flowering weeds, and trees, which explains the harmful exposure of bees to so many types of pesticides.
A new kind of pesticide used on the crops of soybean and corn, known as neonicotinoids, is the primary cause of the huge drop off in honeybees’ number. Some of these pesticides have already been banned by the European Union and other countries. The situation has become critical because these pesticides are used from 2006 leading to such a massive bee decline.
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