During the past few years, you may have become aware of a decline in bee populations throughout North America and Europe. The sudden disappearance of adult bees from a nest has been termed Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and presently has the power to seriously disrupt the environment and economy of North America and Europe.
Bees play a vital role in all environments requiring pollinators such as crops and wild flowers. Not only do they enrich the natural environment, they also provide huge economic benefits from produce such as honey, fruits and vegetables for human consumption. They certainly are busy bees, in the U.S. alone, they are estimated to provide $8-12 billion to the economy!
Professor Chensheng (Alex) Lu and his team of Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have shown that CCD is not caused by instantaneous death of bees by predators or disease as previously thought, but by the commonly used pesticide, imidacloprid.
Imidacloprid acts slowly on a bee’s central nervous system, often leaving adults unable to return to their nest. Researchers from HSPH exposed 16 hives to differing concentrations of imidacloprid and left 4 untreated. After 12 weeks, all bees were alive, but those exposed to higher levels of imidacloprid were weaker. By 23 weeks 15 out of 16 hives exposed to imidacloprid, entered CCD presenting almost empty nests!
CCD has been affecting bee populations since high – fructose corn syrup has been used to feed bees. In 2004 – 2005 producers of corn in the U.S. started to use imidacloprid to treat crops, a year later outbreaks of CCD occurred.
This research, along with others published last week, provides a vital step towards protecting highly important bee species, for both the environment and economy.
Haley Dolton