PARIS (Reuters) – French lawmakers approved plans for a total ban on some widely used pesticides blamed for harming bees, going beyond European Union restrictions in a fierce debate that has pitched farmers and chemical firms against beekeepers and green groups. The EU limited the use of neonicotinoid chemicals, produced by companies including Bayer Crop … More France moves towards full ban on neonics blamed for harming bees

Scientists say they have found the “missing link” in the debate over the risk of pesticides to bees. French researchers say neonicotinoid pesticides harm individual honeybees, but whole colonies are able to recover in the wild. This accounts for discrepancies between lab and field studies, they report in Royal Society Journal Proceedings B. A Europe-wide … More Bees and pesticides ‘missing link’ found

A decline in bumble bee populations in Europe and North America has been documented in a number of recent publications. Meanwhile, little is known about bee populations in Alaska, where native bee pollination is critical to the maintenance of subarctic ecosystems. Researchers have now completed a two-year study on bumble bees in agricultural areas in … More Bumble bees in the last frontier, Alaska

Bumble bees have discriminating palates when it comes to their pollen meals, according to researchers. The researchers found that bumble bees can detect the nutritional quality of pollen, and that this ability helps them selectively forage among plant species to optimize their diets. The scientists conducted a laboratory cage study in which they placed bees … More Picky eaters: Bumble bees prefer plants with nutrient-rich pollen

Since bee colonies started declining at alarming rates over the past few decades, some scientists have identified a group of pesticides called neonicotinoids that are commonly used on crops as a potential contributor. A team reports in American Chemical Society’s journal Environmental Science & Technology that bees could be getting an unexpected dose of neonicotinoids … More Wildflowers on farms — not just crops — can expose bees to neonicotinoids

Researchers discover new mechanism associated with worldwide decline of bee populations One possible cause of the alarming bee mortality we are witnessing is the use of the very active systemic insecticides called neonicotinoids. A previously unknown and harmful effect of neonicotinoids has been identified by researchers. They discovered that neonicotinoids in low and field-relevant concentrations … More Neonicotinoid pesticides cause harm to honeybees