Mysterious Honey Bee Disorder Buzzes into Court

WASHINGTON, DC, August 19, 2008 (ENS) - The nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit Monday in federal court in Washington DC to force the federal government to disclose studies on the effect of a new pesticide on honey bees. Studies on the pesticide, clothianidin, were ordered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from the pesticide's manufacturer, Bayer Crop Science, in 2003 when the federal agency granted the company a registration for the chemical. An NRDC bee researcher and the organization's attorneys believe that the EPA has evidence of connections between pesticides and the mysterious honey bee die-offs reported across the country called "colony collapse disorder," or CCD, that it has not made public. The connection is important because commercial honey bees pollinate about 90 of the country's crops, valued at $15 billion. Apples, peaches, pears, pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, cherries, berries, peppers, squash, soybeans, almonds, cashews, and sunflowers all require or benefit from honey bee pollination. The EPA has failed to respond to the NRDC's Freedom of Information Act request for agency records concerning the toxicity of pesticides to bees, prompting Monday's legal action. "Recently approved pesticides have been implicated in massive bee die-offs and are the focus of increasing scientific scrutiny," said NRDC attorney Aaron Colangelo. "EPA should be evaluating the risks to bees before approving new pesticides, but now refuses to tell the public what it knows. Pesticide restrictions might be at the heart of the solution to this growing crisis, so why hide the information they should be using to make those decisions?" Calangelo asked.

At an apiary by the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, bees fill the air as beekeepers examine hives for disease. (Photo courtesy Penn State) The EPA has issued a fact sheet on clothianidin, one of a relatively new class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids that impact the central nervous system of insects. Maryann Frazier, who works with Pennsylvania State University as an extension associate in entomology, says in a paper on neonicotinoids and bees that, "There is conflicting information about the affects of neonicotinoids on honey bees, and different chemicals in this class are known to vary in their toxicity to bees, however the EPA identifies both imidacloprid and clothianidin as highly toxic to honey bees." The use of clothianidin and other insecticides of this class has "increased dramatically" over the past few years and they are now the most widely used group of insecticides in the United States, Frazier says. "Their uses include: seed treatments for corn, cotton, canola and sunflowers; foliar sprays of fruit, nut and coffee crops; granular, and liquid drench applications in turf, ornamentals, fruit crops and in forests," she explains.

The EPA fact sheet says of clothianidin, "It has the potential for toxic chronic exposure to honey bees, as well as other non-target pollinators through the translocation of clothianidin resides in nectar and pollen. In honey bees, the affects of this toxic chronic exposure may include lethal and/or sub-lethal effects in the larvae and reproductive effects on the queen." In addition, says Frazier, "there is concern about the practice of combining certain insecticides and fungicides." She cites a North Carolina University study found that some neonicotinoids in combination with certain fungicides, synergized to increase the toxicity of the neonicotinoid to honey bees over 1,000 fold in lab studies. Colony collapse disorder has claimed more than one-third of honey bees in the United States since it was first identified in 2006. A survey by the Apiary Inspectors of America published in May found that losses of honey bees nationwide topped 36 percent of managed hives between September 2007 and March 2008, compared to a 31 percent loss during the same period a year earlier. The chemical is sold under the brand name "Poncho" by Bayer AG in Germany, where it was banned in May after an unauthorized release that Bayer blames on an "extremely rare" "application error." In fact, Germany banned the entire class of neonicotinoids.

Another Bayer neonicotinoid, imidacloprid, has been blamed in France and South Dakota for colony collapse disorder. In South Dakota, farmers are suing, and the French government has banned the chemical for use on sunflower seeds. Scientists have not yet pinned down the cause of colony collapse disorder but they believe it is linked in part to pesticides. Penn State research has documented more than 70 pesticides in pollen and bees, information that was presented Monday at a national American Chemical Society meeting in Philadelphia. "We do not know that these chemicals have anything to do with Colony Collapse Disorder, but they are definitely stressors in the home and in the food sources," says the Penn State scientist who conducted this research, Dr. James Frazier. "Pesticides alone have not shown they are the cause of CCD. We believe that it is a combination of a variety of factors, possibly including mites, viruses and pesticides." "This is a real mystery right now," said Dr. Gabriela Chavarria, director of NRDC's Science Center. "EPA needs to help shed some light so that researchers can get to work on this problem. This isn't just an issue for farmers - this is an issue that concerns us all." In documents to be filed next month, NRDC attorneys will ask for a court order directing the EPA to disclose its information about pesticides and bee toxicity.

UGA gets $4.1 million to study honeybee deaths

By BOB DART, The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionWashington — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded $4.1 million to the University of Georgia to lead a nationwide investigation into the mysterious deaths of honeybees, a threat to pollination valued at $15 billion a year to American farming."Georgia is one of the lead players" in the honeybee world, said Keith Delaplane, the UGA entomology professor who will direct the four-year investigation that will involve 17 colleges and universities. University of Georgia entomology professor Keith Delaplane will direct the four-year, nationwide investigation of why bees are dying. "We estimate that honeybees contribute $75 million a year to the state economy," Delaplane said in a telephone interview. That includes pollination of crops such as fruits and vegetables, honey revenues, and actual sales of bees.

Georgia is the leading producer of queen bees and packaged bees east of the Mississippi River, he said.Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer announced the grant to study the causes of colony collapse disorder and other diseases affecting bee populations. "Bees are an extremely valuable contributor to the overall productivity of American agriculture, but invasive pests, diseases and environmental stresses are putting U.S. bees at serious risk," Schafer said. "This research will help beekeepers meet the pollination demand for the nation's food supply."The University of Georgia is the lead institution for the project, and Delaplane is the director. The professor is the author of several books on honeybees and beekeeping. "This is a special category of grants (to deal with) problems of national impact. They award only one a year," Delaplane said Thursday. Delaplane said the decline of the honeybee population has been tracked since 1945. However, there has been a "sharp downward spike" in the past few years.

He said the new research will focus on a relatively short list of possible causes. Among these are a handful of bee viruses; a single-cell organism that "gets in the gut" of bees and causes death; the varroa mite, which came from Asia in 1987, and new categories of pesticides such as flea killers for pets. The goal of the nationwide research is to eliminate redundancy in a "coordinated attempt to figure out what is causing honeybee decline and what we can do about it." So, the universities of Maine and Massachusetts will be dealing more broadly with pollinators beyond honeybees, the University of Georgia will focus on the varroa mite, the University of Nebraska will look at pesticides, and other universities will deal with other aspects of the problem.There will be an emphasis of genetic solutions – breeding honeybees that are naturally resistant to the causes of death, Delaplane said. "It doesn't make sense to come up with another chemical to fix the problem," he said, since chemicals are likely involved in the causes. "This type of grant is very outcome-oriented," said Delaplane. "Four years from now, we're going to know pretty clearly … what are the problems here." "Knowing your enemy is the first step to winning," he said. "It will be a major accomplishment if we can do that."The USDA said colony collapse disorder became a major concern in the winter of 2006-2007, when an estimated 25 percent of the nation's beekeepers reported major losses of adult bees from their hives. The department said the main symptom of colony collapse disorder is a hive with no or few adult honeybees present, but with a live queen bee. Often there is still honey in the hive, and immature bees are present.In the typical American diet, about one out of every three mouthfuls of food directly or indirectly results from honeybee pollination, the USDA said. The cost of hives for pollination is rising, not only because of dying bees, but also because of rising gas prices to get the bees to the fields where they are needed. This contributes to the rising cost of food.

The buzz on Minnesota bee: A real honey for survival

By David Hawley Winnie Johnson talked about the queen bee, center, and the queen's court in the Horticulture building at the State Fair on August 21, 2008. (Jean Pieri, Pioneer Press)Minnesota has a state flower (pink-and-white showy lady's slipper), a state bird (common loon), a state tree (Norway pine) and a lot of other state things — even a state muffin (blueberry). But does Minnesota have a state honeybee? Well, not officially — but sort of. A number of years ago, entomologists at the University of Minnesota developed the Minnesota hygienic bee, a variant of the common domesticated honeybee that somehow is better at sensing sickness in the hive and cleaning diseased broods out of the colony. "You can identify the Minnesota hygienic bee by the little gold 'M' on its wing — naw, just kidding," said Gary Reuter, a university researcher who is making the rounds of bee activities at the Minnesota State Fair. These include appearances on the U of M Stage and at the Eco Experience Progress Center, plus appearances with other bee experts at the Fair's premier site for appreciating the busy, buzzing insects: the Bee and Honey Exhibition area in the Agriculture Horticulture Building.

It's here that members of the state's two major organizations for beekeepers — the Minnesota Honey Producers Association and the Minnesota Hobby Beekeepers Association — make some fairgoers cringe by stepping into a big cage housing a honeybee colony. They also demonstrate elements of the bee business, like harvesting techniques, beeswax rendering and candle making. And they sell a wide variety of honey and a rare honey-flavored ice cream that can be found only at the Fair.Winnie Johnson, a teacher and beekeeping hobbyist from rural Anoka County, has been superintendent of the Fair's bee and honey area for some two decades. She says visitors to the exhibit remain fascinated by honeybees — children often know more about them than their parents, she adds — and many are aware of, and even alarmed by, their decline in numbers. "Minnesota hasn't seen as much of a decline as beekeepers in other parts of the country," Johnson said. "In Minnesota, we have 200 to 300 commercial beekeepers who make their living primarily from the production of honey, though some of them also move their bees around the country for pollination. They're the ones who have seen the biggest decline in numbers in recent years. "The rest of us are hobby beekeepers — about 700 to 800 — and the hobby operations aren't as badly affected," she added. "Many have lost a hive or two, but nothing to the extent of what some commercial producers have lost."

Alarming stories about declines in domesticated bee populations have been reported periodically for more than a decade. Five years ago, for example, the National Geographic Society published a report estimating that the world's domesticated honeybee population had declined by about 50 percent in the past 50 years. Domesticated honeybees help put the bloom on about 100 important crops, including about one-third of the fruit, vegetables and nuts found in the supermarket. Some see the decline in honeybee populations as the agricultural equivalent of the canary in the coal mine — a warning of ecological catastrophe. The problem, however, is not acute in Minnesota, Reuter said. "It's a serious problem, all right, and it seems to be a spring phenomenon," Reuter said. "A die-off happens, then bee keepers are able to get populations back up — if not to the same level, then pretty close." The reason? "Right now we're still searching," Reuter said. "It could be a combination of things or maybe something out there that we haven't looked at yet or haven't been able to find. Now is a great time to pick your favorite reason." And there's no shortage of theories. One is the widespread use of monoculture - the planting of single crops that deny bees a sustained food source while also requiring growers to import bees for pollination. The almond crop in California is frequently cited as an example. Another is the popularity of plantings that provide no food source at all to honeybees.

To a bee, for example, your beautifully green, artificially fertilized lawn is a desert. Pesticide use is also cited as a reason for bee decline. Another factor may be a tiny Asian mite called the "varroa destructor" that sucks the juices out of honeybees and can destroy whole colonies. "In this area, it's our biggest killer of bees," Reuter said. Johnson said many visitors to the bee exhibition in the horticulture building learn about bee-friendly environments and often leave with yet another reason to reserve space for wildflowers, besides the aesthetic one. "We sometimes forget that a weed is just a plant we don't like," she said. "They can be wildflowers that serve a purpose."

And she also added this parting advice: "If you want to buy buckwheat honey, show up early," she said. "We always sell out of it first."