I was out inspecting my bee hive this weekend. Yep, i've become a hobby beekeeper...its all the rage, dontcha know. Even though on most days my bees love me, yesterday one little rascal had a bad thought about me, culminating in a sting. My local beekeeper association president says they only sting if they have to, but I think this little lady (yep, all the worker bees are female; here is a photo of one of my bees with her pollen baskets full of yellow pollen) went out of her way unnecessarily. Unfortunately, the sting is accompanied by a chemical signal that alerts the rest of the hive to a danger. And, that danger was me. Many more stings followed before I could wrap up my hive inspection and go running into my house to hide.

What's my point? Chemicals. Some are good, like the ones that bees release to warn the colony of an intruder. And, the pheremones that my queen releases to let her male harem (the drones) know that she is active and ready to lay some larvae.  Some are bad for the hive. Like many pesticides.

The neonicotinoids are a class of pesticides that have long been suspected to harm bees and other pollinators, such as imidacloprid and clothianidin. They seem to damage critical parts of the bee nervous system, impairing the bees' ability to communicate, find their way home, and fight infections. Although the evidence isn't yet air-tight, and more research needs to be done, why wait for the nail in the bees' coffin? The neonicotinoid pesticides have already been banned or restricted in France, Germany, Italy, and Slovenia. Now, the Soil Association of the United Kingdom is circulating a petition to have them banned in the UK.

Here in the U.S. the neonicotinoids are in widespread use, along with other pesticides that are classifed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as toxic to honeybees. What are we waiting for?

The EPA says this about the neonicotinoids: "Studies conducted in Europe in the late 1990s have suggested that neonicotinic residues can accumulate in pollen and nectar of treated plants and represent a potential risk to pollinators. Adverse effects on pollinators (beekill incidents) have also been reported in Europe that have further heightened concerns regarding the potential direct and/or indirect role that neonicotinic pesticides may have in pollinator declines."

More information on why bees need protection is here at our NRDC website.