Widely Used Pesticide Here Banned in Germany

Scientist Hints at Possible Link to CCD

Chris Torres
Staff Writer

Scientists working to solve Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) say there is no evidence that a recently banned chemical in Germany has anything to do with bee die-offs in the U.S.

But that doesn’t mean it should be ruled out as a possible cause of the disorder.

Maryann Frazier, a senior extension associate at Penn State who is working with several other scientists on trying to find out if pesticides have a role in CCD, said the group has found some evidence of the chemical clothianidin in hives that have been studied at the university — but not enough for it to be considered a major cause of the disorder. At least not yet.

Earlier this month, the German government issued a temporary moratorium against the use of clothianidin after scientists found evidence that the chemical was the cause of a mass bee “die-off” in that country. Clothianidin is manufactured by Bayer CropScience and is sold under the name “Poncho”.

The chemical is used as a coating agent on corn seeds to kill invasive pests.
Reports started coming in from Germany in mid-May of farmers finding large “piles” of dead bees in fields and in orchards.

The Sierra Club this week urged the USDA to issue its own moratorium against the use of the chemical here until a more complete study of the chemical can be done.

But the fact that the bees were found in these large dead piles is a clue to Frazier that the situation in Germany differs greatly from the mass die-offs here. CCD has been characterized by the disappearance of bees from their hives.

According to an article in the trade publication Chemical and Engineering News, German farmers this year have doubled their use of clothianidin to battle a corn beetle infestation.

“It’s very clear that it’s a pesticide kill there,” Frazier said. “If we had been seeing that in the U.S., we would have our answer here.”

Nonetheless, clothianidin is listed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a potentially toxic chemical to honeybees. It was approved for use in the U.S. in 2003 and Germany in 2004 because it was thought bees would have little contact with the seeds underground.

However, the chemical can easily be blown through the air and onto other fields.

The chemical is one of a group of neonicotinoids that is widely used in the U.S. Neonicotinoids have been mentioned as a possible cause of CCD.

The pesticide acts on insects as a neuroinhibitor, or nerve gas.

Along with being used in field corn, Frazier said it is used to coat sunflower seeds as well as being used in golf courses, in termite treatments in homes and even on pets to treat for fleas and ticks. Neonicotinoids started replacing organophosphates, another type of nerve gas, 10 years ago and have been widely used ever since. But, while CCD was first identified in late 2006, Frazier pointed out that large losses of bees started occurring before neonicotinoids were introduced.

Some of the most notable neonicotinoids brand names are Provado and Assail.

“These neonicotinoids are extremely widely used,” Frazier said.

A recent study released by the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium (MAAREC) is raising concerns that the increased prevalence of pesticides in honeybees may be a contributing factor to large honeybee losses caused by CCD.

A study of 108 pollen samples identified 46 different pesticides in the samples, including one sample that had 17 different pesticides.

Neonicotinoids were among the pesticides that were found.

About five different pesticides were found in each sample on average and only three of the samples had no detectable pesticides.

The most frequently identified chemical was fluvalinate.

Although the chemical was once considered almost harmless to bees, the study found a new formulation of the chemical was released in the 1990s which was twice as toxic.

While she admits that no “smoking gun” has been found in terms of a specific chemical that might be causing CCD, Frazier is concerned that a combination of chemicals may be adding to the already stressful environment bees live in.

“It’s hard to believe there is not some impact of these pesticides on hives,” she said. “We think it is possibly a combination there. We’re just asking a question of is there a correlation.”