Colonies in Collapse: What's causing massive honeybee die-offs? Part 3

Photo: Steve Williams, Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences A survey team inpects colonies awaiting transport to their next pollination job.

This is part three of a three-part series by Melissa Beattie-Moss of Research Penn State.

Bad chemistry?
Dave Hackenberg and other beekeepers in the trenches have their own opinions about what is going on.

Hackenberg doesn’t mince words. “Our scientists are working their heads off on a little bit of nothing. All we’re doing here is slowly reinventing the wheel of what Europe has already figured out.”

What France and Germany have done is ban a class of insecticides called neonicotinoids (or “neonics”), an artificial form of nicotine that acts as a neurotoxin to insects. Seeds are typically treated with the chemicals before they are planted or are sprayed while growing in the fields. Their use has been strictly curtailed in France since the 1990s, when they were linked to a mass die-off of bees. In May of 2008, Germany suspended sales of eight neonicotinoid products after two-thirds of the bees in the country’s Baden-Wurttemberg region died following the use of the pesticide clothianidin — sold in Europe under the name Poncho — in local fields.

Neonicotinoid manufacturers say that their pesticides are safe if properly applied. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency describes clothianidin as a non-selective poison that is “highly toxic to honeybees.”

Says Hackenberg, his voice strained with frustration, “If you look at what the manufacturers tell you about how these neonics affect the targeted insects — termites, grubs, what-have-you — they say first of all it breaks down their immune systems, it causes the insect to quit feeding, it causes nervous system disorders, it causes them to be disoriented so they can’t find their way back home. Well, guess what? All four of them things are what’s happening inside of a bee hive with CCD. “

Says Cox-Foster, “Researchers here at Penn State don’t have any evidence to support that these neonicitinoids are the compounds that underlie CCD.” Frazier agrees, adding “Many different kinds of pesticides probably are part of a “perfect storm” of stress factors that have been building in intensity for decades, leading to a decline in honeybees and other pollinators, says Frazier. “This situation is just like a cup. You can put so much in that cup, but at some point it’s going to overflow.”

Working with her colleague (and husband) James Frazier, as well as lead investigator Chris Mullin (“one of the few insect toxicologists working in the U.S. land grant system,” she notes) Frazier has investigated the accumulation of chemicals within bees and their hives. Explains Frazier, almost all known categories of insecticides, as well as some herbicides and fungicides, are detectable in the bees they have analyzed. “What we have found in terms of pesticides is really unprecedented,” she says. “We have found such high levels of pesticides in the wax, in the pollen, and in the bees themselves—beyond the level that was expected when the chemicals were introduced and approved for use. In a total of 108 pollen samples analyzed, 46 different pesticides were identified. We’ve found as many as seventeen different pesticides in one pollen sample from one colony. We’ve identified as many as twenty-four pesticides in one sample of bees. And then there’s the issue of the interactions of these chemicals—things the manufacturers are not required to test.”

Some of these chemicals, such as the pesticides fluvalinate and coumaphos, are commonly used by beekeepers against varroa and tracheal mites. “We certainly see high levels of these miticides in the bees’ pollen and wax,” Frazier says. “We’re starting to ask the question ‘Are the pesticides as much a problem as the mites?’”

Adds Cox-Foster, “Some of the pesticides you and I can buy in garden stores and spray on our roses have the exact same compounds and the exact same concentration as the ones farmers are buying, and they have no warning labels. In order to get rid of weeds and make our flower beds look immaculate, we may have been poisoning some of our bees and pollinators.”

“You set a hive of bees down and you can’t put a fence around 'em!” exclaims Hackenberg. “Honeybees are a barometer of the environment. They’re going to fly miles in every direction to gather food, so if there’s anything out there that’s contaminated, they’re going to find it.”

For his part, Hackenberg now quizzes farmers about what pesticides they use on their crops before he’ll rent his colonies out for pollination. “I was never one of those people to push for organic farming and all that stuff … but I guess I’m agreeing a whole lot more these days,” he says. “You have to wonder how much of this stuff is not just affecting insects, but is affecting us. I mean, think of the corn going into corn syrup, the soy going into our food supply — all this stuff is treated with these chemicals.”

An endangered occupation
“Things don’t just happen to one species in isolation,” notes Frazier. “People are beginning to look at bees and their decline as an example of what we are doing to our environment. To some degree, the honeybees could be seen as an indicator species telling us what’s out there and what pollinators are being exposed to, as well as being a potential canary in the coal mine, if you will.”

“What I can say fairly confidently,” she continues, “is that the bees will get by, but the beekeepers may not. When large numbers of bees are lost, they bounce back over time. But we don’t have that many commercial beekeepers in this country and many of them are on the brink of financial disaster. If we lose them, we lose the ability to pollinate our commercial agriculture corps.”

Says vanEngelsdorp, “In a way, beekeepers are the last nomadic farmers in America. They tend to be family businesses, passed from father to son. And it’s hard to see these hardworking people scared by these huge, unexplained losses.”

“Imagine that you’re a dairy farmer,” Hackenberg explains, “and you go out one morning and find 60 or 70 percent of your cows are dead. So you replace them but two weeks from now, 50 percent of those are dead. You can’t go on that way.”

In the last two years, CCD has driven winter mortality rates to new highs in America’s 2.4 million beehives and made deep cuts in the number of beekeepers still working. Without federal support, says Frazier, the profession faces an almost insurmountable challenge. “The big grain farmers have support. They have crop insurance to help them through a few bad years. I would like to see some similar support for our commercial beekeepers.”

Ice-cream, wildflowers and public education
Cox-Foster feels that people are beginning to realize that honeybees are the unsung heroes of the food chain. “It’s clear that many people didn’t appreciate what it took to get their food on the table,” she says. “Now we’re becoming aware that if we knock out the pollinators with these migratory beekeepers, you basically limit the foundation under a lot of our vegetable and fruit production.”

The people at Haagen-Dazs have taken note, citing that 40 percent of their ice cream incorporates “bee-dependent” (a term they’ve coined) ingredients, such as raspberries, peaches, and almonds. As part of their “Haagen-Dazs Loves Honey Bees” consumer education campaign, the company has given $150,000 to Penn State’s Honey Bee and Pollinator Research Program.

Whole Foods Market, the country’s largest retailer of natural and organic foods, has also targeted Penn State’s entomology department as a recipient of its cash register donation coupon program.

Penn State has been chosen as the recipient of personal donations as well. Elizabeth Schetman, a seventeen year old from Brooklyn, New York, singlehandedly raised over $5,000. “I wanted to support CCD research in particular,” she explains, “and after a bit of online research decided that Penn State was where I should donate the money I would raise. Their efforts led by Dr. Diana Cox-Foster definitely stood out.”

With the Haagen-Dazs contribution, among others, Penn State will purchase two expensive pieces of equipment that will enable faster processing of samples, and will also provide small grants for student research on bee-related topics. In addition, notes Frazier — the head of apiculture extension programs — some funds will go to Pennsylvania’s Master Gardeners program, to help each county’s group develop pollinator-friendly demonstration gardens and certification guidelines throughout the state. (It is important to think of plants—including so-called weeds such as dandelions and clover — as food sources for bird and butterflies, she explains, adding that native plants that have evolved to grow in your region are best for pollinators. What looks very lush to us — manicured lawns and gardens — is actually a desert for bees and other pollinators. “We’re actually starving them with these landscapes.”)

Despite all that is wrong, is there reason to hope? “Yes, very much so,” says Frazier. “Big agriculture is not going to easily change, but we’re beginning to see people become interested in locally grown, locally consumed food, with less pesticide. I think there’s a tremendous move in the direction of sustainable agriculture, and the bee situation is only going to help push this forward.”

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Part one of this article is available online here.

The secord portion of this article can be found here.

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Diana Cox-Foster, professor of entomology in the Department of Entomology in the College of Agricultural Sciences, is also co-chair of the Colony Collapse Disorder Working Group. She can be reached at dxc12@psu.edu.

Maryann Frazier is a senior extension associate in the Department of Entomology and can be reached at mxt15@psu.edu.

David Hackenberg is owner of Hackenberg Apiaries, has served as President of the American Beekeeping Federation, and currently sits on the National Honey Board. He can be reached at buffybee@dejazzd.com.

Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Masters in Apiculture, is the state apiarist for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and a senior extension associate in Penn State’s Department of Entomology. He can be reached at dennis.vanengelsdorp@gmail.com.

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