Bee Pollen is Full of Pesticides Like Mosquito-Repellants

[senona]

Pollen collected by bees next to corn fields in West Lafayette, Indiana, contained up to 32 different pesticides.

Oh no, this does not sound good at all for bees

In a study published May 30 in the journal Nature Communications, researchers Elizabeth Long and Christian Krupke show that bees next to corn fields collected pollen containing up to 32 different pesticides, most of which didn’t originate from crops or agricultural applications. Pollen samples were taken over a four-month period from three hives in West Lafayette, Indiana, where Purdue is located.

Some of these pesticides were expected. Neonicotinoids, for example, which some research has implicated in the decline of bees, are used to coat seeds are known to be found in corn and soybean pollen. But others came as quite a surprise. The pesticides found in the greatest quantities were pyrethroids, synthetic products generally used in households to repel insects, says Krupke, an entomology professor at Purdue University. Among these were phenothrin, which is used to repel ticks and fleas, and prallethrin, for killing wasps and hornets.

Pyrethroids are extremely toxic to bees. The researchers don’t think the quantities found in pollen are high enough to immediately kill the insects, Krupke says, but they nevertheless have the potential to impact their health and may be playing a role in their decline. Populations of the insects have been falling in recent years; this past winter, over one quarter of American honey bee colonies were wiped out.

The researchers also found the mosquito repellant DEET (also known as N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide) in every single pollen sample.

Source


I had thought DEET products were supposed to be limited, guess not.
And it was not just 2 or 3 pesticides, but many

The results probably apply to large swathes of the country—anywhere crops like corn and soybeans are grown in abundance, Krupke says. He emphasizes the sheer number of pesticides honey bees are being exposed to.

“At no time did we find only one or two or three pesticides—we found multiple pesticides co-occurring in every single sample,” he adds.

And they wonder about the declining bee population.
Well.....this ought to be an eye opener.

But nothing will come of it more than likely.
Too much money being made off of pesticides.

[Mystic Wanderer]

So, I suppose now one of nature's best foods for us is now on the black list along with everything else the money-grabbing corporations touch!
This really pisses me off!   :facepalm:

[senona]

UPDATE:

Study: Wild bee populations dwindle in main U.S. crop regions

Wild bees, crucial pollinators for many crops, are on the decline in some of the main agricultural regions of the United States, according to scientists who produced the first national map of bee populations and identified numerous trouble spots.

The researchers on Monday cited 139 counties as especially worrisome, with wild bee numbers decreasing while farmland for crops dependent on such pollinators is increasing.

The counties included agricultural regions of California such as the Central Valley, the Pacific Northwest, the upper Midwest and Great Plains, west Texas and the southern Mississippi River valley.

The counties grew crops such as almonds, pumpkins, squashes, blueberries, watermelons, peaches and apples that are highly dependent on pollinators, or had large amounts of less-pollinator-dependent crops including soybeans, canola and cotton.

Taylor Ricketts, director of the University of Vermont's Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, said the 139 counties represent 39 percent of the pollinator-dependent crop area of the United States and most likely will face inadequate pollination in the future.

"Wild bee declines may increase costs for farmers and, over time, could even destabilize crop production," Ricketts said.

Some crops such as corn and wheat do not need pollinators.

The study estimated that wild bee numbers diminished in 23 percent of the continental United States between 2008 and 2013 in a trend driven by conversion of their natural habitat into farmland including corn for biofuel production.


Pesticides and diseases were cited as other factors behind the declines among the roughly 4,000 U.S. species of wild bees.

"Wild bees help pollinate many of our most nutritious crops, support natural ecosystems and contribute over $3 billion to the U.S. economy each year," Ricketts said.

Their decline may prompt greater dependence on commercial honeybee colonies for pollinating crops, but honeybee numbers also are falling, added Gund Institute researcher Insu Koh, the lead author of the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.