A new way to assess the danger that pesticides can pose to bees
thebeereport.substack.com
Discussing the hazards that different pesticides might potentially pose to bees can be a frustrating and tricky thing. The problem is that risk assessments are done with honey bees. And the honey bee (domesticated, highly social and cavity-nesting) is by no means representative of the roughly 3,999 other bee species in North America (the majority of which are wild, solitary and ground-nesting). Sure, a certain dose of a certain chemical under certain conditions might not kill off a perennial honey bee colony with tens of thousands of individuals. But what would the effect be on a single bee who is alive for only six weeks, raising her brood of eight?
A new way to assess the danger that pesticides can pose to bees
A new way to assess the danger that…
A new way to assess the danger that pesticides can pose to bees
Discussing the hazards that different pesticides might potentially pose to bees can be a frustrating and tricky thing. The problem is that risk assessments are done with honey bees. And the honey bee (domesticated, highly social and cavity-nesting) is by no means representative of the roughly 3,999 other bee species in North America (the majority of which are wild, solitary and ground-nesting). Sure, a certain dose of a certain chemical under certain conditions might not kill off a perennial honey bee colony with tens of thousands of individuals. But what would the effect be on a single bee who is alive for only six weeks, raising her brood of eight?