Bee Aids

[Jon]

The latest concoction of inaccuracies from Alison Benjamin in today's Guardian.
Presumably the article was triggered by a press release issued from the below mentioned Mr Roddick (activist and campaigner)


Roddick said: "These neonicotinoid pesticides penetrate the plant and indiscriminately attack the nervous system of insects that feed off them, disorientating bees, impairing their foraging ability and weakening their immune system, causing bee Aids. On current evidence, Italy, Germany and Slovenia have banned some varieties. In the UK, it's up to the people to show the government that if there is any doubt that they are contributing to bee deaths, we need to ban them."

We may as well scrap all the research now that Mr Roddick (obviously has an all seeing eye and knows more than a scientist) has told us for sure what is causing bee decline. Great to be certain.

I wonder has he read all those field studies which looked at Neonicotinoids and failed to find a link with bee decline, but hey, don't let the facts get in the way of a healthy prejudice. Let's keep up this farce with the British public that bee decline (actually a 3 fold increase in uk colony numbers in the past 3 years) is caused either by Neonicotinoid pesticides or mobile phones. Good on yer, and I see there is another worthy petition headed our way. That will fix things good and proper.

The article is headlined


Experts puzzled by big decline in honeybees over winter

yet winter losses were much lower in 2010-2011 than for several years.

Full article here (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/22/honeybees-decline-over-winter?INTCMP=SRCH)

I despair of Alison Benjamin but at least this article was not illustrated with a photo of a hoverfly like many of her previous ones.

[Trog]

When I saw the headline 'Bee Aids' I thought it was about a handy gadget to help beekeepers. Ach well!

[Jon]

You should read the comments below the article. Groundhog day all over again with the quote Einstein never made about bees and all the rest of it.

[Neils]

The BBKA losses are at 13.6% this winter. Maybe my figures weren't so far away after all. Again though those aren't really put into any context but don't seem indicative of a bee apocalypse to me at the moment.

Was also interesting to see that from LASI's point of view they didn't have pesticides on their radar as being a significant contributing factor in bee decline/issues. Where they had looked at pesticides they'd found a significant reduction in incidents of bees being poisoned by pesticides over the past few decades.

At what point do we, as beekeepers, get to tell this lot to sod off and stop trying to pin their issue du jour on honey bee problems as per the "mobile phones are evil" brigade?

<insert standard disclaimer about not liking pesticides of any kind near my bees etc etc etc>

[Jon]

they'd found a significant reduction in incidents of bees being poisoned by pesticides over the past few decades.

That's what I understood as well. There is a campaign against neonicotinoid pesticides at the moment but the older categories of pesticides were far more dangerous for bees. Half way down the article it mentions that winter losses a few years ago were 1/3 of uk colonies.

I think Habitat loss, varroa, nosema and virus plus their interactions are the big worries. Oops forgot mobile phones!

[Neils]

I did notice that they'd at least included that nugget and the suggest that Varroa remains the biggest problem to bees which mirrors my own personal feeling.

I think that the continuing reduction in bee losses is generally down to beekeepers getting better information about IPM and less reliant on chucking in pyrethoids unthinkingly at the end of the season and assuming they're doing the job. Certainly around this neck of the woods we've been banging the IPM drum continually for several years.

[Jon]

Yep. I have never had a varroa disaster, touch wood. I do Apiguard in September, Oxalic in winter and drone brood culling in the summer to check things. I also monitor insert trays but same as you I don't entirely trust the mite counts. You will note I did not mention sugar dusting, otherwise known as beekeeper placebo!

[gavin]

The latest concoction of inaccuracies from Alison Benjamin ....

You let it all out Jon, you'll feel better for it!

I particularly enjoyed the sniping about the Scots in the reader's comments (thought it was the Telegraph or the Mail there for a moment), and this, apparently from the comedian Jimmy Carr:

'They say that bees are disappearing? Well that's ollocks!'

It is truly amazing how poorly served we are by some journalists.

[Trog]

There's one positive thing about the article: people are being encouraged to plant bee-friendly plants. As someone whose garden is planted and managed for bees, I approve of that.

[Neils]

I don't know Trog, there's probably a really bad analogy struggling to get out somewhere (sorry, another forum raps you on the knuckles everytime you roll one out) but it seems a little sad if the best we can take from an article that probably should be trumpeting "Bee losses continue to fall!" is that they're encouraging people to plant flowers bees like off the back of carrying on the "Pesticides are killing bees!!!!!!!111one!!1" non story.

I think there is a story in pesticides and pesticide use, but colony losses in the UK isn't it.

[Trog]

There's another good thing coming out of all these domesday documentaries. The general public are getting the idea that bees are not a disposable commodity and that they must be helped and protected. If that leads to fewer swarms and ferals being destroyed, that may be a good thing. When my B & B guests, spooning the honey onto their toast say, 'Bees are in trouble, aren't they?' I can give them the facts but the great thing is that folk are thinking about bees and feeling positive towards them, rather than the old 'nasty stingy things' and long tarrydiddles about when they got stung by a wasp, etc.

[chris]

tarrydiddles .

It is well worth being a member of this forum just to have encountered such a word:)

[Trog]

My mum and grandmother used it quite a lot!

[gavin]

One thing that's become plain to me over the years is that you shouldn't mess with the public by being patronising or untruthful. It will come back to bite you in the end. People accuse pro-technology scientists of being economical with the truth but that pales into insignificance when compared to the misinformation spread on bees and threats to the environment. The end shouldn't justify the means. People can be encouraged towards being good environmentalists without them being lied to because once they realise the deceptions floating around they may never believe the responsible groups again.

Think John Gummer and his daughter's beefburger.

All environmentalists, or all beekeepers, should strive to make sure that the truth gets out there otherwise we will all be tarred with the same brush.

[Trog]

If you read my reply, you'll see that I give folk the facts when they ask about bees. It's exactly the same thing with organic gardening and recycling. Yes, they've been hijacked by the New Agers and other oddballs but for those of us normal folk who've been doing a bit of both for donkeys' years it's good to see even misinformation getting the message across that it's a good thing to do. So, I'll leave it to the scientists to get all uptight and jumpy about the pesticides/CCD debate and I'll carry on taking what snippits folk have picked up from the media and use it as a starting point to educate them about the delights of bees and beekeeping!