New research has linked springtime die-offs of honeybees critical for pollinating food crops — part of the mysterious malady called colony collapse disorder (CCD) — with technology for planting corn coated with insecticides. The study, published in ACS’ journal Environmental Science & Technology, appears on the eve of spring planting seasons in some parts of Europe where farmers use the technology and widespread deaths of honeybees have occurred in the past.
Tag Archives: pollination
This humble beauty is still out there – Cockerell’s Bumblebee not extinct
She was last seen in 1956 in the White Mountains of south-central New Mexico. But apparently this rarest of American bumblebees still has her own tiny, humble little home on our planet, where she’s happily helping to pollinate summer flowers.
Invasive species and pollinator decline, compensating crises?
Here on Bitsofscience.org we try to keep things simple. CCD is bad. Invasive species are bad. But sometimes complex reality forces you to consider more pragmatic views. Or at least that’s what two Princeton researchers would argue.
Closing in on CCD: a cocktail of cocktails is killing the bees
Although that would of course be much more convenient when trying to solve the problem, research shows Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, that sudden die-off of bee populations in Europe, North America and Asia, cannot be attributed to one single … Continue reading
CCD not only pollination disturbance – intensive agriculture may lure bees away from rare wild plants
Researchers of Oxford University and Earthwatch UK find farmland rich in pollen distracts pollinating insects from nearby nature reserves.