Why are Many Bees Dying?
Insects are pests and need to be destroyed to increase the corporate bottom line. Monsanto, Bayer, and their cronies have come to the rescue to increase crop yields by providing Neonicotinoid seed coatings to seeds in order to kill pests that also eat food. There is an extremely dangerous side effect to this. It kills bees.
Here’s how it works. There is a nerve transmitter in the central nervous system in insects called acetyl choline. All receptors in the insect sensitive to this stop functioning normally after a delayed reaction with a small dose. In bees, this leads to confusion in direction finding (they literally get lost) and in decreased and incompetent grooming (they don’t clean themselves). The Neonicotinoids cause them to become infected by bacteria, or eaten by mites. This only happens after several days, allowing the Insecticide to be carried back to the hive and spread to all of the other individuals in the hive. This phenomenon is now known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Hundreds of billions of bees have died from Neonicotinoid poisoning. The US Department of Agriculture noted a shocking 42% loss of domesticated honeybees in the year 2014-2015.
Neonicotinoids are affecting another pollinator, the Monarch Butterfly. Their direction finding sense is altered, preventing them from migrating and reproducing. Other beneficial and neutral insects are also affected.
Neonicotinoids are now on virtually every plant as a seed coating in commercially grown flowers, vegetables, and fruits. These Neonicotinoid “enhanced” vegetables and flowers are commonly purchased for personal use in big box stores and nurseries unwittingly by consumers.
We need to stop buying these ubiquitous products immediately! Please switch to Organic seeds, seedlings and plants to insure that you are not part of this mass killing of our vital pollinators. You are part of the problem if you are planting these seeds or eating food that is grown from these seeds. While they apparently cause no direct danger to people, the indirect danger is alarming and appalling. One third of our food is pollinated by bees, and losing them would mean the loss of some of your favorite fruits and vegetables.
Many people, organizations, and government entities use Neonicotinoids in the US, even though they are banned in many countries. Be on the lookout for the following substances as ingredients: Acetamiprid, Clothianidin, Dinotefuran, Imidacloprid, Nitenpyram, Thiocloprid,and Thiamethoxam.
Charles Pellegrino wrote a prescient fiction novel in 1998 called “Dust.” In it, he explored what would happen if all those “insect pests” died. The rsults would be catastrophic. In short, insects are vital to our food supply as intermediaries, pollinators, and food for other life forms. Without them, the ecological balance would be tilted radically out of balance, causing unforeseen damage where it is unsuspected.
Personally, you can remove your support for these substances by not consuming them. Please tell everyone you know. The more people are aware of this issue, the more likely it is we can continue to enjoy the benefits of pollinators like bees, even if it interferes with Big Food and Big Pharma’s bottom line.