Community | September 22, 2008 | 19 comments

Italy bans pesticides linked to bee devastation

source: http://www.enn.com/wildlife/article/38233

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jefftego
The Italian government banned the use of several neonicotinoid pesticides that are blamed for the deaths of millions of honeybees. The Ministero del Lavoro della Salute e delle Politiche Sociali issued an immediate suspension of the seed treatment products clothianidin, imidacloprid, fipronil and thiamethoxam used in rapeseed oil, sunflowers and sweetcorn. The Italian government will start a monitoring program to further investigate the reasons of recent bee deaths.

Italy followed Germany and Slovenia which banned sales of clothianidin and imidacloprid in May. In France imidacloprid has been banned on sunflowers already since 1999. In 2003 the substance was also banned as a sweetcorn treatment. Bayer´s application for clothianidin was rejected by French authorities.

The two substances are produced by the German company Bayer CropScience and generated *800 million in 2007. Imidacloprid is Bayer´s best-selling pesticide.

In August the German Coalition against Bayer Dangers brought a charge against Werner Wenning, chairman of the Bayer Board of Management, for marketing dangerous pesticides and thereby accepting the mass death of bees all over the world. The charge was introduced in cooperation with German beekeepers who lost thousands of hives after poisoning by the pesticide clothianidin in May this year.

Neonicotinoid pesticides are systemic chemicals that work their way through the plant and attack the nervous system of any insect it comes into contact with. The substances also get into the pollen and the nectar and can damage beneficial insects such as bees.
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19 comments // Italy bans pesticides linked to bee devastation

  • jitensha
    • 0
      jitensha  

    • It's good to see the Italian government thinking for itself. I do hope the US will follow soon as well. I have hope for this next election to see some Change in so many areas we need to understand we are all connected and this cycle of life includes us and the environment. Thanks for the post.

    • 3 years ago
  • johnioo
    • 0
      johnioo  

    • Yet again good science is shafted by knee jerk 'green science.
      Colony Collapse Disorder has nothing to do with the use of insecticides
      Clothianidin is used as a seed dressing not a 'nasty nasty spray'. It's use does away with the need for the use of an insecticidal spray which is more of a problem for bees.
      The situation in Germany was caused by a manufacturing fault where the chemical was not properly applied to the seed.
      Independent trial work (on the internet) has established that Bees be they honey or Bumble are unaffected by the minimal residues (6ppb!) found in the flowers of crops treated with Clothianidin
      But hey lets not let the truth get in the way of a good story!

    • 3 years ago
  • EscarpasMistress
    • 0
      EscarpasMistress  

    • Pesticide means organic food.. Which means more energy and food and more minerals and stuff. I find it such a good idea. But the prices won't rise or will they?

    • 3 years ago
  • jacijacijaci
  • iloveravi
  • WisconsinNorm
    • 0
      WisconsinNorm  

    • If any of you have ever raised bees, I'm sure you have shared my utmost fascination with them. If this European insecticide is the same contributing factor to the demise of our North American honey bee, I can't believe it took this long to figure out. This is what schools of agriculture at universities are supposed to do. Shame University of Wisconsin--you should worry less about football and more about pollination outside of your dorm rooms. (I 'm an alumni, I can say that)

      Now let me share with you a little anecdote. It is still illegal to raise honeybees in most cities because of a "Blue Law". Honeybees hate "horse sweat" and in the good old days they would sting the crap out of horse and buggy operators etc. causing perhaps potentially lethal horse stampeding. Trust me, they leave people alone if you leave them alone. I used to watch them for hours with my young kids on my lap right in front of the colony with no additional protection.Removing honey comb is not a terrible procedure if you are calm about it.

      I got a "big warning" for raising bees in the city, I removed my two lousy colonies, and did not fight the issue. I think these "bee laws" should be rescinded to allow the practice of "organic" honey production in the American cities restart. Man, I gotta tell you, one colony of bees will make gallons of honey. Give them plenty of water or your neighbor with the swimming pool will call the cops on you! Foraging is no problem. Man this is great news--healthy bees with no mystery disease! Maybe next spring I'll take a chance and do it again. Illegally.

    • 3 years ago
  • McGaspa
  • WisconsinNorm
    • 0
      WisconsinNorm  
    • WisconsinNorm:

      There are many books already out there. It starts out simply with a two or three pound package of bees sent to you home with a queen. The bees come form the south in the spring.

      You have waiting for them your "three hive bodies" which will be turned into the brood chambers (breeding area) by the bees and these three areas basically never get changed, although occasionally reversed. You put additional bodies on the top of these three lower units with a "queen excluder" between them (queen bees are bigger than workers and can't fit through this screen), and your honey harvest is taken from these upper units. I left more honey than most beekeepers for over-wintering because I felt "a little guilty" taking the honey from them.

      Bee keeping equipment is readily available on the web. When you first start out you feed the bees sugar water so they can start making wax to start the breeding area--the queen bee comes fertilized so she is ready to go... Within this sugar water solution you place antibiotics to keep them healthy or buy pollen etc. to feed them from the supplier--this sounds difficult, but not!

      After a week or so of feeding sugar water, medicine, and pollen cake, you let the bees out for the first time to explore the neighborhood...It is so cool...they work all day, they return at night...They have drones and workers, the workers have duties, it is a little city with life and death, soldiers and nurses...I think I want to do it again...thanks!

      Of course, before winter, the male drones get kicked out, and are starved and left to die...such is life in matriarchy!

      I am going to figure out a way to stop that system, it is hard on my nerves.

    • 3 years ago
  • Bren589
  • VoyagerFilms
    • 0
      VoyagerFilms  

    • Genetically altering GOD's own handywork!?

      The God of those pathetic men who think they are doing something constructive is horribly flawed.

      Soooooo horribly flawed - we generally refer to such a flawed God as the "Devil".

      Monsantos and every other company and individual should be stripped of any and all wealth to pay reparations to the countries and people for nearly EXTERMINATING us all!

    • 3 years ago
  • McGaspa
  • kadugen
  • onechance
  • LindseyIndigo
    • 0
      LindseyIndigo  

    • This is a brilliant, progressive thing for Italy to do - rest of the world take note! It's great to hear when governments are actually taking productive action rather than burying their heads in the sand.

    • 3 years ago
  • bluestranger
    • 0
      bluestranger  

    • If we had someone with a big pair in the USDA or the FDA maybe there would be some action here. Too many public servants get too much in campaign contributions from the chemical and the agri-business corportaion lobbies for this to happen in the U.S.

    • 3 years ago
  • oracleruby
  • regularrf
  • McGaspa
    • 0
      McGaspa  
    • regularrf:

      Before someone that is not Italian American corrects you...
      as your Italian brother from another mother, "Italy followed Germany and Slovenia which banned sales of clothianidin and imidacloprid in May"
      But hey, we invented the meatball! Along with other awesome stuff.

    • 3 years ago
  • k8_hj
    • 0
      k8_hj  

    • Good, this needs to be a much bigger issue in the US. There are certain crops, like almonds, that cannot be pollinated with out the help of our poor honey bees :(
      These pesticides should be banned everywhere. If they're killing bees what do you think they're doing to us? It's no wonder so many people have cancer.

    • 3 years ago
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