Massive declines in insect biodiversity and biomass are reported from many regions and habitats. In urban areas, creation of native wildflower meadows is one option to support insects and reduce maintenance costs of urban green spaces. However, benefits for insect conservation may depend on previous land use, and the size …
Massive declines in insect biodiversity and biomass are reported from many regions and habitats. In urban areas, creation of native wildflower meadows is one option to support insects and reduce maintenance costs of urban green spaces. However, benefits for insect conservation may depend on previous land use, and the size …
Researchers at the University of New Hampshire have found a dramatic decline of 14 wild bee species that are, among other things, important across the Northeast for the pollination of major local crops like apples, blueberries and cranberries. "We know that wild bees are greatly at risk and not doing …
New pesticides regarded as “bee safe” could actually be causing harm to these vital pollinators when combined with other chemicals being applied to crops, according to a new study. Since a range of bee-harming substances were banned in the UK and the rest of Europe, there has been growing pressure …
Results from a new study suggest that bees might be exposed to pesticides in more ways than we thought, and it could impact their development significantly. The study, published in Nature’s Scientific Reports, looks at the non-target effects of pesticides on ground-nesting bees, a group that actually makes up the …
Conservationists on Wednesday notified the Trump administration that they would sue over its reversal of a 2014 decision prohibiting bee-killing pesticides and genetically modified crops on U.S. wildlife refuges. The reversal, issued on Aug. 2 in a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service memo, suggested that neonicotinoid pesticides, or neonics, were …
At least 4,500 people have been affected by the climate change-induced decline, estimated at about 65 per cent. The production of Oku White Honey has dropped by 65 per cent, according to the Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch (CAMGEW) non-profit conservation organization. The organization holds that the drop was caused …
For centuries bees, busy as they are known to be, have benefited people, plants and the planet. But did you know that bees are not the only ones that sustain life on earth? By carrying pollen from one flower to another, bees, butterflies, birds, bats and other pollinators facilitate and …
Insecticides could be developed that kill pests without harming beneficial insects such as bees, according to a new study. The use of pesticides is currently the subject of much debate, owing to the catastrophic effects chemicals such as neonicotinoids have on the environment, and particularly on the bees we rely …
Bumblebee queens are a common sight on a spring day, their large furry bodies flying industriously from flower to flower. At this point they will have just awoken from a long hibernation – the much smaller worker bees die off each year, leaving the new queens to survive winter alone. …
Researchers found a 24 per cent reduction in bee populations at test sites in Hungary was linked to use of neonicotinoids, but also some 'positive' effects of its use in Germany A major £2.7m study into a controversial type of nicotine-based pesticide has found it can cause harm to bees, …
France's government will not repeal a planned ban of bee-harming neonicotinoid pesticides, the prime minister's office said on Monday after the country's farm minister said it should not be applied. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said in a statement the law adopted in 2016 and which envisages goes beyond EU restrictions …
The forests in eastern Zimbabwe supply the country with wood and most of its fresh fruit. But the removal of large numbers of trees and use of fire to clear land have caused a lot of damage to the area. Officials say Zimbabwe lost more than 1.5 million hectares of …
All flowering plants sold by B&Q; are to be grown without using pesticides that are harmful to bees, the retailer has announced. A series of scientific studies have shown that bees are exposed to neonicotinoid pesticides in fields and suffer serious harm from the doses they receive. The European commission …
Use of a common pesticide in spring could have an impact on wild bumblebees by interfering with their life cycle, a UK study suggests. The team, who looked at wild bumblebees caught in the English countryside, say the insecticide, thiamethoxam, reduces egg development in queen bees. They say this is …
Pollinator-driven diversification is thought to be a major source of floral variation in plants. Our knowledge of this process is, however, limited to indirect assessments of evolutionary changes. Here, we employ experimental evolution with fast cycling Brassica rapa plants to demonstrate adaptive evolution driven by different pollinators. Our study shows …
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday proposed listing the rusty patched bumble bee, a prized but vanishing pollinator once widely found in the upper Midwest and Northeastern United States, for federal protection as an endangered species. One of several wild bee species seen declining over the past two …
New research has added to the growing list of challenges facing the nation’s pollinators. A study, published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that agricultural changes in the Northern Great Plains — particularly the expansion of corn and soybean cropland — could be putting a …
LONDON – Minnesota’s governor on Friday ordered the broadest restrictions yet in a U.S. state on the use of agricultural pesticides that have been blamed for hurting bees, fueling concerns that farmers there will not be able to protect crops from insects. Gov. Mark Dayton issued an executive order that …
An overwhelming majority of the British public polled want new post-Brexit laws protecting wildlife and the countryside to be at least as strong as the EU rules currently in place, according to a opinion poll published on Thursday. Many also want a new farming subsidy regime to emphasise environmental protection …
Species that fed regularly on oil seed rape such as the buff tailed bumblebee showed more serious declines The large-scale, long-term decline in wild bees across England has been linked to the use of neonicotinoid insecticides by a new study. Over 18 years, researchers analysed bees who forage heavily on …
