A new report says a record-breaking 58 per cent of Ontario’s
bee colonies failed to make it through the winter, increasing the political
pressure to curb the use of neoticinitoid insecticides as seed treatments.
Overwinter losses were 28.6 per cent in 2012-13 and 15 per
cent in 2011-12.
“This level of winter loss is considered a high winter loss
for most Canadian bee keepers,” says the report by the Canadian Association of
Professional Apiculturalists.
It says the average overwintering loss is 25 per cent, and
it blames both a harsh winter and the use of neoticinitoids.
The association notes that a scientific review of 800
reports done for the Task Force on Systemic Pesticides blames neonics for a wide
range of problems.
“The effects of exposure to neonics range from instant and
lethal to chronic,” says the report.
“Even long-term exposure at low levels can be harmful.”
Health Canada’s Pest Management Review Agency has called the
way neonics have bee used “unsustainable” and has called for changes, such as
measures to reduce neonic dust escaping during corn planting.
A recent paper by Nigel Raine of the University of Guelph
has concluded that neonics have adverse effects on bees.
A University of Saskatchewan study found that neonics reduce
insect populations in wetlands and that has an adverse impact on birds’ feed.
