Save The Bees Concert

A memo from the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Thursday that the Trump administration rolled back an Obama-era ban on neonicotinoids, a group of synthetic chemical pesticides that are linked to the decline of wild bee populations around the world. This ends a policy that had prohibited farmers on refuges from planting genetically engineered crops. The chemicals have been … More WHAT ARE NEONICOTINOIDS? TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ROLLS BACK BAN ON SYNTHETIC CHEMICAL PESTICIDES

REUTERS/PETER BADERBY CHRISTINA PROCOPIOU   Pollinators are under threat—and that means that one in three bites of food that we eat is at risk. Additionally, this threat places the almost 90 percent of flowering plants needing pollination across the world on shaky ground, potentially endangering the wildlife that depend on them for food. According to a report sponsored by … More Forty percent of invertebrate pollinators like bees and butterflies are facing extinction, according to a UN report released February 26

A beetle that tricks bees into carrying it into their nests where it can live off their pollen, nectar and eggs adapts its deceptions to local hosts, according to research by Leslie Saul-Gershenz, a graduate student in entomology at UC Davis. Aggregations of the larvae of Meloe franciscanus beetles lure male digger bees (genus Habropoda) with … More Beetle adapts chemical mimicry to parasitize different bee species

Clues show that their immune genes are under selection. By sequencing the genome of the yellow-banded bumblebee, York University researchers have found that inbreeding and disease are likely culprits in their decline in North America. “The yellow-banded bumblebee has been declining throughout much of its range in North America, but we don’t know why,” says … More Inbreeding and disease are factors in decline of yellow-banded bumblebee

A spike in calcium consumption in the fall, and high intake of potassium, help prepare the bees for colder months Source: Tufts University Summary: Researchers have discovered that honey bees alter their diet of nutrients according to the season. A spike in calcium consumption in the fall, and high intake of potassium, help prepare the bees … More Bees adjust to seasons with nutrients in flowers and ‘dirty water’

By DAWN RITCHIE   Sustainability is trending, and it’s the guiding principle behind a raft of innovative programs springing up at colleges and universities. Sustainable Urban Beekeeping is one of the latest offerings from Humber College, presented in association with Humber Arboretum, TRCA and Parks, Forestry, and Recreation. The pilot program, launched in 2017, grew in popularity … More Sustainable beekeeping programs are creating a buzz

 early studies of the impacts of neonicotinoid insecticides on insect pollinators indicated consider able harm. However, lingering criticism was that the studies did not represent field-realistic levels of the chemicals or prevailing environmental conditions. Two studies, conducted on different crops and on two continents, now substantiate that neonicotinoid s diminish bee health (see the Perspective by Kerr). Tsvetkov et al. find … More Damage confirmed