By Fiona Nicholson, Science writer

SAVE the BEES T

he Scotish Beekeepers Association has reported a 30 per cent decline in our bee population in recent years.

It is mirrored by a similar decline in other pollinating insects and in insect-pollinated wild plants. In addition to this overall decline, mass bee colony deaths, believed to have resulted from pesticide poisoning, have been noted in a number of countries.

In the UK, alone, an increasing number of mass poisonings have been reported to the Wildlife Incident Investigation scheme since 2008. More than a quarter of them were associated with neonicotinoid use.

In each case, high levels of neonics were detected, particularly clothianidin, thiamethoxam and imidaclorid,

One of the first indications that neonicotinoids, a group of pesticides developed by Bayer Crop Science in the 1990s, might be implicated in sudden deaths of bee colonies was a mass poisoning which took place in France in 1994.

Neonic-treated sunflower seeds were blamed aſter tests revealed that pollen and nectar from these plants were contaminated by imidaclorid. A government report by the Comite Scientifique et Technique (CST) stated that the treatment of seeds with imidaclorid posed a significant risk to bees.

Maurice Mary, of the French Union National d’Apiculture (UNAF) says: “The agent is staying in the soil for up to three years; even untreated plants can contain a concentration [of neonicotinoid] which is lethal to bees.”

Mass poisonings described by the Pesticide Action Network UK include the loss of thousands of bee colonies in Germany in 2008, which affected millions of bees. This was due to airborne dust from clothianidin-treated maize seed.

Similar incidents were reported in Italy in recent years, again due to exposure of bees to neonic- contaminated airborne dust from treated maize seed. Tests showed that the contaminated

“Te agent is staying in the soil for up to three years; even untreated plants can contain a concentration [of neonicotinoid] which is lethal to bees.”

Maurice Mary, French UNAF

Special Report

dust contained more than 2000 times the levels of neonicotinoid found in direct pesticide spray.

Over 2009-2010, beekeepers in Austria and Slovenia reported further incidents of mass poisoning. Again, dust from neonic- treated maize seed was the culprit.

Imidaclorid can survive several years in soil, and may leach into ground water. Research in the Netherlands found that neonics, when present in water, were linked to reduced numbers of aquatic invertebrates, the organisms which provide the main source of food for salmon, trout and wading birds.

“Our soils are heavily contaminated with these persistent pesticides and they are polluting rivers as well,” says Mat Shardlaw of Buglife.

In 2014, a mass poisoning was described outside London where passers-by reported more than 500 queen bees dead or dying in the road, close to a crop which was seed-treated the previous autumn with imidaclorid.

Government tests indicated that the bees were contaminated with high levels of imidaclorid, which is only partially banned, and also by two fungicides which enhance the toxicity of neonics. PAN UK says neonicotinoids are frequently used as a preventative measure - oſten unnecessarily.

Are we going to kill Scotland’s bees all over again? August 2015 9