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Thursday, July 4, 2013

BEE NEWS - FORTY MILLION BEES KILLED IN CANADIAN FARM

BEEKEPER SAYS STUDIES POINT TO CHEMICALS USED IN NEARBY GMO CORN FARM AS CAUSE OF 40 MILLION BEES DEMISE
 
David Schuit runs Schuit's Saugeen Honey near Elmwood, Ottawa, Canada and witnessed a devastating loss of 600 hives totaling nearly 40 million bees. What happened around the same time? A nearby corn field was planted.
 
The group of chemical pesticides called neonicotinoids is used in treating seeds - especially genetically modified corn - before planting. These chemicals have been found in soil, plants, pollen, even in the end product of high fructose corn syrup which is often fed to bees as cheap food to replace the honey they would have survived on. Bees get thirsty too; and there is footage that proves when they drink water droplets from treated plants they can die of neurotoxicity within 25 minutes.
 
It's not just Schuit, though, experiencing the loss. Nearby, growers Nathan Carey and Gary Kenny lost bees this spring and point to insecticides. Kenny lost 8 of his 10 hives after corn planting in adjacent fields. Carey feels like everyone has something at stake with this growing problem.
 
Schuit says the government is sitting on results that prove the direct connection between those chemicals and the destruction of bees, and doing nothing.
 
other species such as "sweat bees, squash bees, leafcutter bees (which pollinate alfalfa) bumblebees, some moths, and many others" are dying from pesticides as well as the use of all heavily doused genetically modified crops. Butterflies, fish, birds, and frogs also top the list for lost habitat likely caused by pesticides.
 
Recently 25-50,000 bees in Oregon dropped dead with strong evidence pointing to a toxic spray used in trees. The UK just witnessed their biggest bee loss yet, and it's been suggested that the U.S. lost 50% of its bee population in the last year - affecting both crops and prices.
 
Read morehttp://www.activistpost.com/2013/07/nearly-40-million-bee-holocaust-in.html

CBC radio program AS IT HAPPENS - interview with beekeeper Schuit, where he describes the agony with which these bees die, paralyzed and vomiting the venom, after ingesting those chemicals.
http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/features/2013/07/03/post-6/

More bee news on this blog - http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/search/label/Bees

Links to this post - http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/07/bee-news-forty-million-bees-killed-in.html

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