Beekeepers, environmentalists and advocacy organizations have filed an action for declaratory and injunctive relief against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), claiming that the agency has failed to take any regulatory action on pesticide products containing the active ingredients clothianidin and thiamethoxam in violation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Administrative Procedure Act. Ellis v. EPA, No. 13-1266 (N.D. Cal., filed March 21, 2013). According to the complaint, “In a vast and extremely risky experiment, EPA has allowed over two million pounds of clothianidin and thiamethoxam to be used annually on more than 100 million acres and on dozens of different plant corps without adhering to existing procedural frameworks and with no adequate risk assessments in place.” The plaintiffs allege that this inaction has “been a major factor in excessive honey bee mortality and the decline of pollinator populations in the same…
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The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published an inventory of its activities on bees and bee health as part of a forthcoming report to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. Spurred by a worldwide decline in the bee population, the agency created a task force with expertise in pesticides, animal health and welfare, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and plant health “to provide risk managers with comprehensive advice in the area of bee health.” In compiling the inventory, the task force identified 355 bee-related scientific outputs that EFSA has already published or developed, with the majority of these outputs involving applications for regulatory products such as pesticides and GMOs. “With its mandate to improve EU food safety and to ensure a high level of consumer protection, EFSA has a responsibility to protect bees and the ecosystem services they provide to humans,” stated the agency in a November 20,…
Researchers with the Universities of Sheffield and Sussex recently announced plans to build a computer model of the honey bee brain that would eventually pilot “an autonomous flying robot.” According to an October 2, 2012, press release, the “Green Brain” project aims to produce a tiny flying robot able to sense and act like a live bee for applications ranging from mechanical pollination to search and rescue missions. To this end, Green Brain will rely on high-performance desktop computer processors known as GPU accelerators rather than more expensive supercomputer clusters. “NVIDIA’s GPU accelerators are an important part of the project, as they allow us to build faster models than ever before,” said Thomas Nowotny from the University of Sussex’s Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics. “We expect that in many areas of science this technology will eventually replace the classic supercomputers we use today and pave the way for many…
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has launched a public consultation on new “draft Guidance on the Risk Assessment of Plant Protection Products [PPPs] on Bees (including Apis mellifera, Bombus spp. and solitary bees).” Intended to help applicants and authorities evaluate PPPs “and their active substances under Regulation (EC) 1107/2009,” the draft guidance outlines a process “by which [PPPs] can be evaluated for their potential risk in causing unacceptable harm to a group of non-target organisms (bees).” To these ends, EFSA has identified a maximum level of harm as defined by Specific Protection Goals (SPGs), which aim to protect the survival and development of bee colonies, preserve biomass and reproduction to ensure long-term survival, and minimize the effect of PPPs on larvae and bee behavior. Recognizing that the viability of a colony depends on the number of bees it contains, the SPGs establish that the magnitude of PPPs’ effects on…
The New York City Police Department has reportedly noted an uptick in the number of bee swarms scouring the five boroughs in search of a new home, a phenomenon which experts have attributed to unusually warm weather as well as an increase in residential apiaries. According to a June 18, 2012, New York Times article, the department’s “unofficial beekeeper in residence” has already handled 31 swarms since mid-March, more than twice the number reported last season. As the Times explained, “Officer [Anthony Planakis] said the bees he had collected were wild, but some beekeepers believe they were fleeing the poorly managed hives that have proliferated on rooftops, in backyards and on balconies since the city lifted a decade-long ban on raising Apis mellifera—the common, nonaggressive honeybee—in March 2010.” With 182 hives registered with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and perhaps as many as 400 total, expert beekeepers have…
Researchers have reportedly identified a new threat to North American honeybees after discovering evidence of a parasitic “zombie” fly infestation in some bee populations. Andrew Core, et al., “A New Threat to Honey Bees, the Parasitic Phorid Fly Apocephalus borealis,” PLOS One, January 2012. According to the study, scientists detected a known paper-wasp and bumblebee parasite, the phorid fly Apocephalus borealis, in 77 percent of honeybee hives sampled in the San Francisco area, as well as in commercial hives located in South Dakota and California’s Central Valley. Known to manipulate behavior in other arthropods such as fire ants, phorid flies apparently cause their honeybee hosts to abandon the hive and die, at which point “up to 13 phorid larvae emerge from each dead bee and pupate away from the bee.” The parasite could thus be one of the multiple factors contributing to colony collapse disorder (CCD), suggested the researchers, who also noted…
A recent study has reportedly confirmed a massive die-off in four North American bumble bee species, raising concerns about the effects on agricultural crops and native plants. Sydney Cameron, et al., “Patterns of Widespread Decline in North American Bumble Bees,” PNAS, January 3, 2011. Led by University of Illinois Entomology Professor Sydney Cameron, researchers examined eight species, comparing approximately 73,000 historical records with data from “intensive nationwide surveys” involving more than 16,000 specimens. Their findings apparently indicated that “the relative abundances of four species have declined by up to 96% and that their surveyed geographic ranges have contracted by 23–87%, some within the last 20 [years].” According to a January 3, 2011, University of Illinois press release, the study authors suspect that pathogens, habitat loss and low genetic diversity could all be contributing to the decline. They also noted that bumble bees, which are adapted to colder climates, help pollinate…
A recent study has homed in on a possible explanation for colony collapse disorder (CCD), a mysterious ailment behind the destruction of honeybee hives worldwide. Jerry J. Bromenshenk, et al., “Iridovirus and Microsporidian Linked to Honey Bee Colony Decline,” PLoS One, October 2010. Researchers apparently found that a combined fungal and viral infection led to 100 percent fatality among bees exhibiting CCD, which disorients and disperses hive members. Although previous studies had evidently suspected small RNA bee viruses or other pathogens, no single factor has been “firmly linked to honey bee losses,” according to the study abstract. Using mass spectrometry-based proteomics (MSP) “to identify and quantify thousands of proteins from healthy and collapsing bee colonies,” the authors concluded that “co-infection” by invertebrate iridescent virus (IIV) and the microsporidia Nosema ceranae is “a probable cause of bee losses in the USA, Europe, and Asia.” Nevertheless, they also stressed the need for further…
North Carolina has reportedly become the most recent state to adopt a definition for “pure honey” that beekeepers hope will get fake honey off the market. Because Americans consume some 350 million pounds of honey annually, but domestic producers produce just 150 million pounds, there is apparently a financial incentive for importers and others to sell honey cut with additives such as corn syrup. Other states that currently regulate honey include California, Florida and Wisconsin. While the Food and Drug Administration has undertaken efforts to stop the sale of chemically contaminated honey, the agency is also reportedly considering a petition seeking to establish a national standard. See USA Today, September 25, 2010.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced an ambitious research effort “to determine the prevalence of parasites and disease-causing microorganisms that may be contributing to the decline of honey bee colonies nationwide.” According to a June 7, 2010, news release, the agency’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and Agricultural Research Service (ARS) will join Pennsylvania State University in surveying 350 apiaries across 13 states: Alabama, California, Georgia, Indiana, Florida, Hawaii, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Washington. Scientists will reportedly test the beehives for “specific pests and pathogens,” particularly a foreign mite of the genus Tropilaelaps. Noting that beekeepers currently provide pollination services for more than 90 commercial crops, USDA has registered a precipitous decline in honey bee populations since the 1980s. Researchers have apparently blamed the decline on numerous factors that include colony collapse disorder as well as newly introduced pests and diseases…
