Why bee health matters

In the last 50 years, experts say the domesticated honey bee population declined nearly 50 percent. This year was one of the worst on record, with some U.S. beekeepers losing 60 percent of their hives. Add in losses suffered by wild honey bees, bumblebees and other pollinators, and the numbers seem downright frightening.

Why? Bees account for one-third of the food we eat. Every fruit, vegetable or nut that forms from a flower — tomatoes, almonds, squash, blueberries — requires pollination. According to The Pollinator Partnership, pollinators add $217 billion to the global economy. Honey bees alone are responsible for $1.2 billion to $5.4 billion in agricultural productivity in the United States.

Colony Collapse Disorder — the phenomenon in which worker bees disappear leaving behind a queen, food and a few nurse bees — started making news in 2006. The term has since come to encompass the broader issue of bee die-offs. Experts say many factors affect bee health: mites; viruses; bacteria; disease; poor nutrition and beekeeping practices; the transportation of hives cross country; habitat loss; genetically modified plants; lack of genetic diversity; weather and pesticides.

Pollinators are exposed to many pesticides. One class of chemistry — neonicotinoids — has been in the media and regulatory spotlight as of late.

Focus shifts to specialty uses
Up until this June, most of the attention was on the agricultural use of neonicotinoids as a seed coating and for other crop treatments. But then 50,000 bumblebees died in a Wilsonville, Ore., parking lot, and it was determined that a dinotefuran pesticide sprayed on 55 linden trees to control aphids, was the cause.

While it investigates the Wilsonville bee kill, the Oregon Department of Agriculture restricted the use of 18 products containing dinotefuran.

The 180-day temporary use restriction applies to all plant applications — by professionals and non-professionals — of any pesticide product with the active ingredient dinotefuran, according to the ODA.

In July, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) introduced “The Save American Pollinators Act” in Congress. The bill asks for the suspension of four neonicotinoids — dinotefuran, imidacloprid, clothianidin, thiamethoxam — until their registration review by EPA is complete in 2019. A pending New Jersey bill would ban all neonicotinoid pesticides in the state.

In April, the EU voted to suspend use of imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam for two years while it investigates their impact on pollinators.

Bayer CropScience said the EU ban was based on a study with inconsistencies and lacked scientific validation and peer review. On Syngenta’s website, Chief Operating Officer John Atkin said banning the products “would not save a single hive and it is time that everyone focused on addressing the real causes of declining bee populations.”

New labels for 2014
In August, EPA announced label changes to “better protect bees and other pollinators” from dinotefuran, imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam. It cited a comprehensive report released in May by EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture showing scientific consensus that pesticide exposure is one of the stressors associated with honey bee declines. EPA intends to have the new label language on “as many products as possible by the 2014 use season.”

The new labeling only applies to products with outdoor foliar applications that might result in exposure to bees; granular products are exempt. It features a “pollinator protection box” and bee icon with information on routes of exposure and spray drift precautions. The bulk of the new language concerns pesticide applications to food crops using pollination services (hired honey bees) and to crops and ornamentals not under pollination service but attractive to bees.

Language for non-agricultural products is as follows:
 

Do not apply [insert name of product] while bees are foraging. Do not apply [insert name of product] to plants that are flowering. Only apply after all flower petals have fallen off.

There is some room for label improvement, experts say. The label of the product used in the Oregon bee kill says not to “apply the product or allow it to drift to blooming crops or weeds if bees are visiting the treatment area.”

“What we’ve seen suggests that the die-off in Oregon was part of an inappropriate application,” said Joe Bischoff, director of government relations at ANLA. “It’s not enough to just read the label,” he said. “You have to understand the label. It’s the law.”

New label language should provide clarity. Steven Dwinell, Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, said the label revisions were “a great step forward.” EPA has done “a great job identifying some of the factors that can affect bees if pesticides aren’t used properly.”

In general, the language used in the new EPA labels is flexible enough for the green industry to work within the new guidelines and still be able to use neonicotinoids, Bischoff said.

“Neonicotinoids are an important part of our industry’s IPM strategy,” Bischoff said. “EPA recognizes that neonicotinoids are a useful tool for growers.”

The industry must learn from these experiences and be a better practitioner.

“As an industry, we are stewards of these chemistries just as we are of the land,” Bischoff said. “We must be responsible and use them for their intended purpose and for their benefits.”

More changes on the horizon
EPA accelerated its registration review schedule for neonicotinoids because of uncertainties about these pesticides and their potential effects on bees, the agency said.

The agency’s docket for imidacloprid opened in December 2008, and for nithiazine in March 2009. To better ensure a “level playing field” for the chemical class, and to take advantage of new research as it becomes available, EPA moved the docket openings for the remaining neonicotinoids on the schedule (acetamiprid, clothianidin, dinotefuran, thiacloprid and thiamethoxam) to 2012. The review should be complete by 2019. 

The EPA reported, “If at any time during our review new data indicate that the labeled use of neonicotinoid pesticides are causing unreasonable risks to pollinators or failing to meet the safety standards in federal pesticide law, the agency will take appropriate action.”

People don’t understand how much testing pesticides undergo, said Cisse Spragins, CEO, Rockwell Labs. “As an industry we need to talk about that.”

Some argue the research that shows neonicotinoids as the sole or major cause of bee decline, but these reports are based on flawed science. These studies often look at the hazards of pesticides, not exposure levels, said Spragins.

“Their objective isn’t science,” she said. “It’s a public relations agenda.”

The Oregon incident added “renewed vigor” to anti-pesticide activism, said Karen Reardon, communications director, Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment (RISE). (Washington, D.C.-based RISE is the national trade association representing manufacturers, formulators, distributors and others involved with pesticides.) These groups’ claims are “mostly unfounded,” Reardon said.

A neonicotinoid ban, like the one in Europe, is not the appropriate action, Bischoff said. “If we attack innovation, how are we going to continue to invest in new innovation,” he asked.

The weight of evidence clearly shows bees and other pollinators can safely coexist and thrive with modern agricultural and plant protection technologies like neonicotinoid insecticides, said Pat Willenbrock, brand manager, Syngenta Professional Pest Management.

“Syngenta’s thiamethoxam has been used safely around the world for many years. Using best management practices and following label use directions will minimize exposure and overall risk to bees,” Willenbrock said.

Some in the industry simply don’t buy the neonicotinoid link. Australia heavily uses neonicotinoids and has no issues with bee health, said Spragins. “How do you explain that?” she asked.

The Washington State Department of Agriculture rejected a request by environmental groups to ban neonicotinoids, citing the lack of scientific evidence linking them to recent declines in honey bee populations. The general narrative that bees are disappearing is “just not true,” said Dwinell. Florida has seen the number of colonies kept by registered beekeepers increase in every one of the last four years. “We have more colonies of bees in Florida than we’ve ever had,” he said. EPA reported that while winter hive losses remain high at about 30 percent, the number of cases attributed to Colony Collapse Disorder has declined over the last five years.