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 …
Wild bees provide crop pollination services worth more than $3,250 per hectare per year, a study reported on Tuesday. Their value to the food system is “in the billions, globally,” its authors wrote in the journal Nature Communications. Over three years, researchers followed the activities of nearly 74,000 bees from …
The causes of declines in bees and other pollinators remains an on-going debate. While recent attention has focussed upon pesticides, other environmental pollutants have largely been ignored. Aluminium is the most significant environmental contaminant of recent times and we speculated that it could be a factor in pollinator decline. Herein …
Bees may become addicted to nicotine-like pesticides in the same way humans get hooked on cigarettes, according to a new study, which was released as a landmark field trial provided further evidence that such neonicotinoids harm bee populations. In a study published in the journal Nature, scientists from Newcastle Univeristy …
Pesticides have been earning themselves a pretty bum rap these days. One of the driving factors behind the decline of honeybees and butterflies around the world, these chemicals have even recently been identified as a major water contaminant, harming aquatic life. Now, new research argues that to make pesticides acceptably …
The next time you visit the lawn and garden center at a Lowe's Home Improvement store, you can shop assured that whatever you chose to buy, you won't be dooming backyard bees in the process. Lowe's has joined a growing list of garden retailers who are taking any products that …
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finally taken some action to restrict the use of pesticides that are believed to be causing serious declines in pollinators, but environmentalists are arguing the agency still needs to do more. Scientists agree that while there are other factors such as disease and habitat …
Reanalysis of a Food and Environment Agency study may provide first conclusive evidence that neonicotinoids pesticides are a key factor in bee decline, despite it originally being used to support the opposite view A study on which the UK government bases its position that neonicotinoid pesticides do not threaten bees …
Almost one in 10 of Europe's wild bee species is at risk of extinction because of threats from the spread of farms and pesticides among other factors, a first assessment of the continent's bee populations showed on Thursday. Bees are vital to food production but are in decline in many …
Bumblebees represent an active pollinator group in mountain regions and assure the pollination of many different plant species from low to high elevations. Plant-pollinator interactions are mediated by functional traits. Shift in bumblebee functional structure under climate change may impact plant-pollinator interactions in mountains. Here, the researchers estimated bumblebee upward …
A SENIOR official in the Forestry and Beekeeping Division of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Mr Kastory Matembele Timbula, shows a beehive to the Chief Technical Advisor of the National Forestry and Beekeeping Programme, Ms Anna-Leena Simula, at Gole village in Handeni District. HANGING in trees, a number …
Bees are dropping like flies in Colorado, with some pollinators seen dying in midflight, scaring some homeowners into getting rid of pesticides on their properties. Residents in north Boulder, located 30 miles northwest of Denver, are growing accustomed to the the sight of honey bee corpses littering their properties. 'I …
MPs raise concerns over Government relying on research funded by pesticide manufacturers to determine the harm their products cause to bees Pesticides linked to bee decline must be banned, a parliamentary report has said The Government has been accused of “putting the needs of commerce ahead of the needs of …
Insect-eating birds are in decline in parts of the Netherlands where farmers have used pesticides that are suspected of killing bees vital to crop pollination, a study showed on Wednesday. The report is the first evidence that neonicotinoid pesticides, restricted in the European Union because of worries about bees, are …
Insect pollination is a vital ecosystem service that maintains biodiversity and sustains agricultural crop yields. Social bees are essential insect pollinators, so it is concerning that their populations are in global decline. Although pesticide exposure has been implicated as a possible cause for bee declines, we currently have a limited …
Nagaland dwellings plentiful bee flora is as a natural endowment. Indigenous techniques, equipments and traditional beekeeping knowledge are goldsmith due to simplicity and low cost input, shows great promise to visionaries for their envisage. The suitable agro-climate, plenty bee flora and immemorial practice with rich traditional knowledge offers enormous potential …
Neurotoxic pesticides blamed for the world's bee collapse are also harming butterflies, worms, fish and birds, said a scientific review that called on Tuesday for tighter regulation to curb their use. Analyzing two decades of reports on the topic, an international panel of 29 scientists found there was "clear evidence …
Home Depot and other U.S. companies are working to eliminate or limit use of a type of pesticide suspected of helping cause dramatic declines in honeybee populations needed to pollinate key American crops, officials said on Wednesday. The moves include requiring suppliers to label any plants treated with neonicotinoid, or …
If approved, up to one-third of UK oilseed rape crops could be treated with neonicotinoids Almost one-third of all oilseed rape in the UK could be treated with a banned insecticide if the government grants an “emergency” exemption from the pesticide manufacturer Syngenta, it has emerged. The agro-chemical company’s neonicotinoid …
Neonicotinoid pesticides are causing significant damage to a wide range of beneficial species and are a key factor in the decline of bees, say scientists. Researchers, who have carried out a four-year review of the literature, say the evidence of damage is now "conclusive". The scientists say the threat to …
Almost a quarter of Europe's bumblebees are at risk of extinction due to loss of habitats and climate change, threatening pollination of crops worth billions of dollars, a study showed on Wednesday. Sixteen of 68 bumblebee species in Europe are at risk, the Red List of the International Union for …
