GR: More evidence on pesticide impact on bees. Pesticides are toxic to many more animals than bees. The economic importance of bees, however, has served us all by focusing attention on the dangers of pesticides. Perhaps Monsanto’s next genetic breakthrough (after herbicide resistant GMOs) will be self-pollinating crops. Thus, pesticide use expands, wildlife declines, and Earth becomes more of a biological wasteland of mile-long rows of corn and beans tended by GPS guided artificial intelligences. Where is the farmer? He’s in the shadows shielded from the intense radiation pouring through the ozone free atmosphere.

“The evidence keeps mounting that pesticides are the main driver of honey bee declines. In a new study, scientists with the University of California San Diego showed that a commonly used neonicotinoid pesticide (thiamethoxam) can significantly impair the ability of otherwise healthy honey bees to fly, raising concerns about how pesticides affect their capacity to pollinate and the long-term effects on the health of honey bee colonies.

“Previous research has shown that foraging honey bees that ingested neonicotinoid pesticides, crop insecticides that are commonly used in agriculture, were less likely to return to their home nest, leading to a decrease in foragers.

“Thiamethoxam is used in crops such as corn, soybeans and cotton. To test the hypothesis that the pesticide impairs flight ability, the researchers designed and constructed a flight mill (a bee flight-testing instrument) from scratch. This allowed them to fly bees under consistent and controlled conditions. The study was published April 26 in Scientific Reports.

“The testing showed that nonlethal levels of neonicotinoid exposure — which bees could experience when foraging on agricultural crops–but below lethal levels — resulted in substantial damage to the honey bee’s ability to fly.

“Our results provide the first demonstration that field-realistic exposure to this pesticide alone, in otherwise healthy colonies, can alter the ability of bees to fly, specifically impairing flight distance, duration and velocity” said Tosi. “Honey bee survival depends on its ability to fly, because that’s the only way they can collect food. Their flight ability is also crucial to guarantee crop and wild plant pollination.” –Staff Report, Summit County Citizens Voice (Pesticides impair honey bee flying abilities – Summit County Citizens Voice).