beekeeping issues
Britain and Germany stood alone in trying to dissuade the EU from banning these insecticides from European farms. So, what do these chemicals do and doesn’ t this rejuvenate the debate about organics?
The good
Neonicotinoid insecticides have been in general use for over ten years. Based on the nicotine molecule this series of compounds are less toxic to mammals than previous organochlorine insecticides. They work by blocking the neurone pathway inside the insect by binding to neuro-receptors. A build up of acetylcholine in the insect paralyses and kills it.
These chemicals have become the most used insecticides in the world, being used in buildings to stop termite damage, crops, injection into trees, for treating seeds, general garden use and as a delousing agent for family pets. Since they do not appreciably attach themselves to mammalian neuro-receptors, they are hardly toxic at all to humans or other mammals.
The ban
A call for a ban is long in the tooth. Since 2006 serious decline in wild bee and honey bees has been documented, some three years after the widespread use of neonicotinoid insecticides. It has to be said that the calls for a ban was not initially based on scientific evidence, because it wasn’ t there.
Whereas these chemicals affect insects exclusively, we have not yet found any research to say these insecticides do not affect bees, and it is possibly a safe assumption to suggest that bees are just as susceptible as any other insect. Indeed, it is suggested in some areas that the research was not completely finished, and that reliance on chemical company data by regulatory
Beekeeping and beautiful gardens go together
bodies was suspect. For example, the Conclusion On Pesticide Peer Review, a scientific study ordered by the European Food Safety Authority concluded:
Several data gaps were identified with regard to the risk to honey bees from exposure via dust, from consumption of contaminated nectar and pollen, and from exposure via guttation fluid for the authorised uses as seed treatment and granules. Furthermore, the risk assessment for pollinators other than honey bees, the risk assessment following exposure to insect honey dew and the risk assessment from exposure to succeeding crops could not be finalised on the basis of the available information. A high risk was indicated or could not be excluded in relation to certain aspects of the risk assessment for honey bees for some of the authorised uses. For some exposure routes it was possible to identify a low risk for some of the authorised uses.
In other words, it is possible to say that there is no scientific data to suggest that neonicotinoid insecticides actually harm bees. This has been the main line the UK and German governments have been using in trying to influence a ban. One would be forgiven for thinking this position is arrived at because the data simply has been omitted, left out or not even tested at all.
Germany and the UK continued to fight against a ban, abstaining in the first vote in March, but on appeal and another vote, neonicotinoids will be banned from 1st December this year.
Or will they?
Actually, the ban is quite specific. The restriction will prevent the use of three neonicotinoid products- clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiametoxam- in seed treatment, soil application( granules) and foliar treatment on plants and cereals( with the exception of winter cereals) that are attractive to bees.