Colony collapse disorder and bee's diet

Cairenn

Senior Member.
This confirms some comments I have made in other threads.


http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=honeybee-food-may-contribute-to-us

"The widespread apicultural use of honey substitutes, including high-fructose corn syrup, may thus compromise the ability of honey bees to cope with pesticides and pathogens and contribute to colony losses," according to the study, which was published on May 28 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Apiary Inspectors of America said in May that more than 30 percent of America's managed honeybee colonies were lost during the winter of 2012-13, up sharply from around 22 percent the previous winter but still close to the six-year average. The losses vary year to year, but a huge and prolonged multiyear decline threatens the species and crop pollination.

Honeybees pollinate fruits and vegetables that make up roughly one-quarter of the American diet, and scientists are split over whether pesticides, parasites or habitat loss are mainly to blame for the deaths.

Similar losses have been recorded in Europe where lawmakers have moved to ban three of the world's most widely used pesticides for two years amid growing criticism from environmental activists.
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