The world’s most widely used pesticides neonicotinoid causes the long-term decline of both honeybees and wild bees, two new field studies found. The first pan-European field study near oilseed rape crops treated with the chemical in Germany, Hungary, and the UK found it harmed bees. The chemicals led to bee population declines by reducing overwintering success of honeybee colonies in Hungary and the UK but not in Germany. Increasing neonicotinoid residue in the bee
nests was linked with lower reproductive success in all three nations. And a Canadian study working in a commercial corn-growing area of Canada found exposed worker bees died younger. Their colonies were also more likely to permanently lose queens. But surprisingly the neonicotinoid contaminated pollen collected by the honeybees came not from crops grown from treated seeds, but plants growing in areas adjacent to those crops. READ MORE
