The entire Buzz: Neonicotinoids, Bees and Colony Collapse Disorder
Know the facts before you start buzzing. A recent heated topic in the news these days is that surrounding bees and colony collapse disorder from neonicotinoids.Recently, many states, in some counties like France and a few Canadian provinces like Quebec have been concerned with neonicotinoids. Neonicotinoids are a pesticide that is used to keep insects away from crops but are hypothesized to be causing harm to the bee populations more specifically the honeybees and the bumblebees. There is a push for a ban of neonicotinoids due to people believing that they are the sole cause of colony collapse disorder.
While there is no doubt that neonicotinoids do have harmful effects on non-target organisms however, sometimes the benefits do outweigh the harms. I believe there is not enough …show more content…
First of all, there is not much evidence that actually supports colony collapse disorder in Canada, let alone are there many instances of colony collapse order in Canada. Many of the studies that have been conducted thus far have been conducted under laboratory settings using concentrations of neonicotinoids that are higher doses than those that would be actually used in the agricultural setting. An example of this is in the study by Fischer et al (2104), where they in fact even state in there study that “The doses applied are somewhat higher than those expected under agricultural conditions”. Perhaps different results would have been shown had more realistic concentrations of neonicotinoids been used. Many of the studies in fact have poor study designs being carried out in the laboratory setting opposed to a field setting, and are unrealistic when it comes to the amount of active ingredient that is applied compared to studying the typical application rate, which would better mimic the exposure in the real
Know the facts before you start buzzing. A recent heated topic in the news these days is that surrounding bees and colony collapse disorder from neonicotinoids.Recently, many states, in some counties like France and a few Canadian provinces like Quebec have been concerned with neonicotinoids. Neonicotinoids are a pesticide that is used to keep insects away from crops but are hypothesized to be causing harm to the bee populations more specifically the honeybees and the bumblebees. There is a push for a ban of neonicotinoids due to people believing that they are the sole cause of colony collapse disorder.
While there is no doubt that neonicotinoids do have harmful effects on non-target organisms however, sometimes the benefits do outweigh the harms. I believe there is not enough …show more content…
First of all, there is not much evidence that actually supports colony collapse disorder in Canada, let alone are there many instances of colony collapse order in Canada. Many of the studies that have been conducted thus far have been conducted under laboratory settings using concentrations of neonicotinoids that are higher doses than those that would be actually used in the agricultural setting. An example of this is in the study by Fischer et al (2104), where they in fact even state in there study that “The doses applied are somewhat higher than those expected under agricultural conditions”. Perhaps different results would have been shown had more realistic concentrations of neonicotinoids been used. Many of the studies in fact have poor study designs being carried out in the laboratory setting opposed to a field setting, and are unrealistic when it comes to the amount of active ingredient that is applied compared to studying the typical application rate, which would better mimic the exposure in the real