“The National Botanic Garden of Wales launches first pollinator plant logo scheme in the UK to be backed by DNA-barcoding science.
It is being rolled out to growers & nurseries so shoppers are guaranteed eligible plants are loved by bees and other pollinating insects, don’t contain synthetic insecticides and are grown in peat-free compost.
It aims to prevent pollinator decline and benefit other wildlife such as hedgehogs, sparrows and frogs …”
Read more …
Researchers found 26% of queen bumblebees treated with insecticides, stopped founding new colonies after winter hibernation. This means over a quarter of bumblebee nests are being lost every year, increasing their chances of extinction.
Researchers found drones (male honey bees) with neonicotinoid exposure did not have reduced sperm count, but did have reduced sperm viability. Their conclusion finds that pesticides leads to queen honey bees failing to become properly fertilised and leads to premature colony failure.
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2016.0506
Glyphosate is a very successful herbicide because it targets an enzyme usually only found in plants. However, gut bacteria in honey bees also contain this enzyme and once affected by glyphosate, increases their susceptibility to infection by disease and other pathogens.
Research has shown glyphosate leads to a weakened immune system in bees, and could be one of the causes of Colony Collapse Disorder.
https://www.pnas.org/content/115/41/10305
Honey bees use pollen to make what is known as “bee bread”. This is where they collect pollen, then mix it with a bit of nectar and some of their digestive fluids before tightly packing it into their cells where it ferments. Fermentation breaks down proteins into important vitamins such as amino acids, lactic acid, and vitamin K. Honey bees eat this because it is a source of medicine, as pollen comes from a wide range of plant sources – just as we get our vitamins from a wide range of fruit and vegetables.
But fungicide research has shown that it reduces beneficial fungi needed for bee bread fermentation, leading to inferior quality bee bread which reduces their immune system and ironically leads to more fungal disease – such as Chalkbrood.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15287394.2013.798846
Researchers have found “rapid mitochondrial depolarization in neurons” in bumblebees exposed to neonicotinoids – meaning the plasma membrane of a muscle or nerve changes in permeability, affecting how cells transmit nerve impulses.
They found that bees suffered poor navigation, which led to poor foraging, which then led to a deficit in colony growth and contributed to bumblebee decline.
https://www.fasebj.org/doi/abs/10.1096/fj.14-267179?sid=c056c9e0-9441-4180-8cbf-0d912050cfe2
A study with data from 284 sites across 40 US States has revealed that common fungicides were the strongest factor in the decline of four bumblebee species.
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/284/1867/20172181
Bees feed on fermented pollen – i.e. bees need yeasts to assist with digestion of pollen – so fungicide would be expected to harm bees. This research links the presence of the fungicide chlorothalonil with the presence of a bee gut pathogen – Nosema bombi.
Chlorothalonil is a widely used fungicide in UK – especially in cereal crops.
Bee Friendly Monmouthshire 