Category Archives: Pesticides
Naturally Imperfect
This might be old stuff to you, but our local grocer has started selling imperfect apples. It’s about time. My kids, who are properly brain-washed, love the smallish bruised apples and understand that these specially priced (Cheaper!) fruits are better … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Ecology, Pesticides, Save the Bees
Tagged apples, imperfection, perfection
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Sterile Radioactive Bugs Arrive in Croatia
Why did a kibbutz in Israel ship 380 million sterile, radioactive fruit flies to Croatia? That might be the most unusual introduction this blog has ever used. Here’s the backstory… Ceratitis capitata – the lovely but insidious Mediterranean Fruit … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Biology, Ecology, Pesticides, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged BioBee, citrus, Croatia, Israel, medfly, Neretva Delta, radioactive fruit flies
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Dead Swiss Bees
Something odd was killing bees in Switzerland. It was sudden. It was peculiar. It was devastating. This past spring – in April, 2014 – beekeepers in the Zäziwil and Möschberg region found almost 200 colonies dying. They quickly recognized signs … Continue reading
Caught in the middle
Are they staying or are they going? The Globe and Mail, “Canada’s newspaper,” has an editorial written by Margaret Wente. She calls her piece “Caught in the Middle of the Bee War” and it is about the vanishing honey bees. … Continue reading
Posted in Pesticides, Save the Bees
Tagged Bayer, colony collapse disorder, Margaret Wente, neonicotinoids
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Neonicotinoids and western Canada
I am still trying to understand why neonic-otinoids have not been a problem in western Canada. 40% of all seeded crops in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta are canola. And 100% of the seed is treated with neonics. So, at least … Continue reading
See You in Court
A few hours ago, Bayer and Syngenta were hit with a $450 million lawsuit for producing a pesticide which has allegedly hurt beekeepers’ businesses. This might be the largest claim ever filed in the history of beekeeping. Two Ontario honey-producing … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Pesticides, Save the Bees
Tagged Bayer, colony collapse disorder, neonicotinoids
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Happy Dusty Anniversary
You know what they say about new technology – someone always finds a way to put it to nasty use. Combine airplanes and chemicals, and what could possibly go wrong? Let’s fly back to 1921 and visit a grove of … Continue reading
Posted in Diseases and Pests, Ecology, History, Pesticides
Tagged citrus, Florida, Florida's Natural, poisoned bees
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Our Bees, Ourselves
Interesting Op-Ed column in the New York Times. Mark Winston, a senior prof at British Columbia’s Simon Fraser, wrote about the widespread collapse of honey bees. Winston is one of those super-brains who studied bees and entomology for years and … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Ecology, Pesticides, Save the Bees
Tagged colony collapse disorder, Mark Winston, synergy
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Alberta deadline
Sorry I was late posting this. Hope you are not in big trouble now. But Albertans who keep honey bees or who own beekeeping equipment are required – by law – to register as a beekeeper by June 29 of … Continue reading
Did I goof up, or what?
Last week’s blog post drew a few interesting responses. Not from Monsanto, whom I expected would be outraged because I wrote that it is perhaps justifiable to vilify “the huge multinational for all manner of environmental ills.” Instead, incredibly, the … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Ecology, Pesticides, Save the Bees
Tagged Bayer, corn, Monsanto, neonicotinoids
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Bad Beekeeping Blog 