(Newswire.net — May 15, 2015) — According to an annual survey conducted by a bee partnership that includes the US Department of Agriculture, more than two out of five American honeybee colonies died in the past year, most of them during summer, CBC reported.
The beekeepers lost 42.1 per cent of their colonies in 2014, the report says, reaching the second-highest rate in nine years.
“What we’re seeing with this bee problem is just a loud signal that there’s some bad things happening with our agro-ecosystems,” said study co-author Keith Delaplane at the University of Georgia. “We just happen to notice it with the honeybee because they are so easy to count.”
Oklahoma, Illinois, Iowa, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Maine and Wisconsin all saw more than 60 per cent of their hives die since April 2014, according to the survey, CBC reported.
What’s killing honeybees?
While Insecticide producers deny the bees are dying because of their products, many claim that neonicotinoids are to blame.
Neonicotinoids are a class of insecticide that targets the nervous system of invertebrates. They are synthetic copies of natural nicotine, which is very toxic to nearly all invertebrates, including bees and other pollinators.
It is common that insecticide companies finance other studies that suggest the bees are being overrun by an infestation of mites, however bee holders are saying they do know how to handle mites without loosing their colonies.
Neonicotinoid pesticides have been used for agricultural purposes in North America and Europe since 1990s, however EU Food Safety Authority banned neonicotinoids from use for two years because its use has been fond harmful for bees.
What is new shocking data for scientists is that more bees died during summer in 2014, which is unlike other years since bee colonies have been monitored in the North America. The survey found beekeepers lost 27.4 per cent of their colonies this summer, which is up from 19.8 per cent the previous summer, CBS reported.
Seeing massive colony losses in summer is like seeing “a higher rate of flu deaths in the summer than winter,” pollinator, and honey bee researcher Dr. Dennis VanEngelsdorp said. “You just don’t expect colonies to die at this rate in the summer.”