Neonicotinoid's On Bees

In “Why Bees Are Disappearing,” Marla Spivak, an American entomologist, sheds light on the importance of bees in the pollination process as well as the decline in bee population. Spivak claims that “bees are the most important pollinators” because over one third of crop production across the world depends on bee pollination. However, bee populations have decreased since the end of World War II due to “multiple, interacting causes of death.” These causes are monocultures, pesticides, diseases, and flowerless landscapes, and they all pose a threat to plant diversity and food production. In order to prevent significant consequences and reverse impacts already made, Spivak encourages the audience to plant bee-friendly flowers without pesticide contamination so that bees, and therefore people, have access to better nutrition.

Before we started researching this project we didn’t know how important bees are to our environment. In general, we can help solve this problem in our environment by limiting the use of pesticides. Creating regulations and laws limiting and controlling the use of neonicotinoid and coumaphos pesticides would greatly help the bees population. We can also reward farmers for practices that help wild bee populations thrive, such as leaving habitat for bees in their surrounding fields, alternating crops so bees have food all year long, and not using harmful

Pesticides are widely used by farmers in order to keep bugs from eating their crops however, pesticides also hurt insects, such as bees, that help pollinate their crops (book). My solution to this problem would be to use the foliars approach when applying pesticides and eliminate chemicals in pesticides that are especially toxic to bees (US Environmental Protection Agency). The foliars approach applies the pesticide directly to the plant instead of spraying vastly over the crops (US Environmental Protection Agency). This protects the bees by

The article “Hivey Leaguers” discusses problems affecting the bee population in the United States ranging from chemicals and insecticides to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Colony Collapse Disorder occurs when the worker bees disappear from the hives, leaving behind the queen and the nurses to take care of the immature bees. This newly discovered threat to bee populations caused widespread panic in the entomologist community and lead to a race to find the cause, and the relative cure. Though this new disorder was a danger, the real bane of the bees was a much more sinister, and domestic, threat.

Scientists performing ecotoxicological studies believe that over time the poisons from Neonicotinoids, cause paralysis in the worker bees and also effects future bee generations when the toxins are ingested. CCD is caused by Neonicotinoids bonding to the anatomy and central nervous system in the bees. This affects their navigation capabilities and also impairs their memory. When they are unable to work effective then things don’t get done. The neonicotinoids are also known to compromise the bees immune systems making them more susceptible to a virus

Carson clarifies that “the sprays, dust, and aerosols are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests, and homes-nonselective chemicals that have the power to kill every insect, the “good” and the “bad”.” In contemporary world today many people use these mankind chemicals without understanding the effects of nature. For example, the reproduction of bees are dropping traumatically because of the pesticides effects on the insects. According to CNN “How Pesticides are killing the bees “Recent data published in science, Nature and other un journals show that bees are dying from some pesticides that are found in our food supply.” The damaged the chemicals are doing to the bees have worries many scientists. The New York Times wrote, pesticide linked to honeybee deaths, “a group of pesticide believed to contribute to mass deaths of honeybees.” Another example of the harmful chemicals affecting the good insects are by destroying favorable insects such as lady bugs and butterflies, which are another great alternative way to pollinate flower. These beneficial insects are very important for human wellbeing; therefore, we should minimize the use of

Being used worldwide, neonicontinoids which have a similar chemical structure/properties as nicotine have been used as an insecticide that attacks insect’s nervous systems for many years now. Being infused within the seed of the crop, bees can be in direct contact with the chemical from the pollen of the plant, “…neonicotinoids, or neonics, a nicotine-based pesticide that coats seeds and infuses all parts of a crop as it matures, are "a key factor in the decline of bees” (“Save the bees, save ourselves”). Experts statistically noticed that one hundred percent of corn seeds and sixty percent of soybean seeds in Ontario are treated with this chemical (“Save the bees, save ourselves”). Presence of these toxins in a bee’s system lead to weakness and eventual death themselves, or play a role in multiple disruptions to their bodies. With the chemical in their body the bee’s health begins to deteriorate as scientifically proven, “Exposure to thiamethoxam appears to impair bees’ homing ability, with consequences for colony survival” (“Save the bees, save ourselves”). Neonicotinoids amongst other chemicals have been linked to causing problems in the bee’s homing capabilities as well as introducing the possibility of the deformed wing virus. A neuroethologist at Newcastle University, discovered that the neonic-tained nectar possesses seemingly addictive

Debates have been that the use of neonicotinoids began to deteriorate bee hives bee keepers are dependent on. The decline in productivity may have been caused by neonic, however an explanation has yet to be confirmed. It is believed that media have

With concerns about a falling honeybee population, some homeowners are worried that mosquito control measures will also harm pollinators. In a study by the Department of Entomology at Louisiana State University, researchers found that mosquito control has minimal effects on honeybee health. As long as pesticides are used properly, pollinators will not be affected.

Bee populations are declining at an alarming rate all around the world, and daily life without bees would be detrimental. Without the bees around to help pollinate our food, 30 percent of which is grown using bees, there is an incredibly high chance that we would starve. “Mankind will not survive the honeybees’ disappearance for more than five years.” (Albert Einstein) By using harmful pesticides in our agriculture, and the excessive use of high fructose corn syrup, we are killing the bees at an alarming rate. One of every three bites of food rely on pollination for a profitable harvest. We must acknowledge everything that the bees provide for humans, then ban pesticides that hard bees, move away from industrial agriculture and put our focus

Recently I read an article in the Hill Country Observer titled “Hives of Controversy” by Tracy Frisch (http://www.hillcountryobserver.com/2015news/Sept2015bees1.htm). The article talks about colony collapse disorder and the causes. The tests that have been done and continue to proceed mention that the insecticide neonicotinoids can be a major cause for the loss of bees. As with most if not all chemical insecticides they don't readily break

Neonicotinoid pesticides are a group of chemicals widely used on farm crops, plants, and trees (1). The concern behind these pesticides is the harmful impact on pollinating insects such as honey bees and bumble bees (1). Neonicotinoids are sprayed onto the plant where they are absorbed by the plant and are transported to all parts of the plant including the pollen (see figure 1) (1). Bees then ingest the pesticide via the pollen; specifically, this is the point where the central nervous system of the bees becomes compromised. A large number of deaths in bees is being used as an argument against the use of neonicotinoids (1).

Over the past years, the bee population has decreased significantly. The primary suspect for the troubles that the bees are facing is Neonicotinoids, also known as neonics, used on agriculture. They are a new type of pesticide, which were created in order to prevent harm to human health, but still has major consequences for bees. The effects of the neonics are similar to nicotine, which lessens their motor skills. Also, the pesticides attach to the receptors of neurotransmitters in their central nervous system. This can cause an block in the receptors, often causing paralysis or in extreme cases death. These horrible pesticides also cause a significant decrease in olfactory memory at below median amount or a significant impairment of learning performance (Aliouane, 2009). Therefore, banning pesticides is very important to the wellbeing of the bees. In addition, a large amount of our food is produced by bees and it they were to be gone, a vast variety of food would disappear causing lots of negative effects. Bees are essential to our everyday food supply, and therefore, neonicotinoids should be

There are different types of pesticides, which include the contact, the dust and wettables and the systemic ones. In the study of CCD, several pesticides are being investigated with emphasis being laid on antibiotics, miticides and neonicotinoid pesticides. Just like other insects are vulnerable to pesticides, bees are no exception. Since bees are also insects by nature, the alleged role of pesticides in CCD is justified. Neonicotinoids are pesticides that contain nicotine and the most widely used are imidacloprid and clothianidin, whose effects on other insects are similar to those exhibited in CCD. The effects of miticides are disastrous as they involve the reduction of not only the sperm count among the drones, but also the viability of those sperms (Timbrell, 2002).

Honey bees, feared by the misinformed and admired by the intelligent, are dying. The interest in bees from many environmentalists is not for a sudden cause, as this issue is not new to the world. Honey bees as a population have been in decline for years but have yet to reach the endangered species list anywhere in the United States except for Hawaii. Many people kill bees that buzz around joyfully, simply because they are afraid of being stung by them; however, a vast majority of bees do not sting and the others do not care. This unfortunate commonality is not even one of the top causes of the worldwide epidemic of honey bees. Although bees are jokingly idolized on the internet in pictures and videos as a result of a popular children’s movie, their population decline is in fact quite serious. Honey bees and other pollinators like birds and insects ensure the pollination of flowering plants and crops all around the globe. Not only do honey bees pollinate plants that produce the foods that humans eat, but they also pollinate trees that produce clean oxygen for Earth. Without honey bees, the world as we know it could soon end, due to carbon dioxide pollution and lack of farmable foods. The population of honeybees and other important pollinator-bee species is dwindling due to a dilemma known to scientists as colony collapse disorder (CCD) because of the use of bee-killing pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, the decrease of flower meadows in the world, and the general increase