NPDF Supports Oregon’s Review of Dinotefuran

The National Pollinator Defense Fund applauds the actions of the Oregon Dept. of Agriculture in their review of pesticides after bumble bees were killed from the use of Safari.  This loss of native pollinators is not an isolated case; it was just a very public and highly visible incident.  Thousands of dead bumble bees in a parking lot brought attention …

Honey Bee Gene Targeting Offers System to Understand Food-related Behavior

On July 25th JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments will publish a new technique that will help scientists better understand the genes that govern food-related behavior in honey bees. The impact of this study could take scientists one-step closer toward understanding — and perhaps changing — undesirable food-related behavior in humans via gene control. "Our technique has already helped to unravel …

Common Agricultural Chemicals Shown to Impair Honey Bees’ Health

First study of real world conditions for crop-pollinating honey bees In a study of real-world conditions encountered by honey bees as they pollinate crops, researchers gathered pollen from commercial beehives placed in farm fields in the Northeastern US. Here the scientists take pollen samples from bees pollinating Maine blueberries.   Credit: Michael Andree COLLEGE PARK, MD - Commercial honey bees used to pollinate crops are exposed …

Widely Used Pesticides Toxic to Honey Bees

PENSACOLA, Fla. - Forthcoming research in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry analyzes the physiological effects of three separate pesticides on honey bee (Apis mellifera). An international research team - Drs. Stephan Caravalho, Luc Belzunces and colleagues from Universidade Federal de Lavras in Brazil and Institut Nationale de la Recherche Agronomique in France - conclude that the absence of mortality …

Bees in the U.K. Under Threat From Disease-carrying Bumblebee Imports, Research Reveals

Stricter controls over bumblebee imports to the UK are urgently required to prevent diseases spreading to native bumblebees and honeybees, scientists have warned. The call follows the discovery of parasites in over three-quarters of imported bumblebee colonies they tested. The study - the first of its kind in the UK - is published today in the Journal of Applied Ecology. While …

Great Sunflower Project Expands Scope to Determine Best Plants for Supporting Pollinators

San Francisco State University News Release   The Great Sunflower Project is moving beyond the backyard this summer Professor of Biology Gretchen LeBuhn. The popular project is encouraging its corps of more than 100,000 volunteers to observe bees and any other pollinators they see, on all kinds of plants and in all kinds of places. Participants can now report their bee counts from a …

Insecticide Causes Changes in Honeybee Genes, Research Finds

New research by academics at The University of Nottingham (UK) has shown that exposure to a neonicotinoid insecticide causes changes to the genes of the honeybee. The study, published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, supports the recent decision taken by the European Commission to temporarily ban three neonicotinoids amid concerns that they could be linked to bee deaths. There is growing …

International Honey Market

by RON PHIPPS President, CPNA International Ltd.1 Co-Chairman, Committee for the Promotion of Honey and Health To see the August 2013 International Honey Market report, please click the link below. http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=5fd2b1aa990e63193af2a573d&id=03a9e673f0