USA caught killing bees

[ubza_1234]

i saw a can of Folimat today at a clients house. it's a systemic organophosphate (or how ever it's spelt). organophosphate's are a class of chemical that they are slowly banning. they are a fantastic insecticide, however, long term high exposure, like long term high exposure to most insecticides, can cause nerve damage much much later in life. shakes are the most common. the only common comercial organophosphate that i've seen used that often is a chem called ficam, wich comes in wettable powder and dust formulations used mainly for bee's and wasps, although it can also be used for spiders, ants, roachs, fleas etc but it is more expensive then other dusts and only comes in 5kg buckets instead of 25kg buchets, wich for a pest controller doing 3-4 spider jobs a day and using typically 200g a day, isnt worth carrying such a small bucket around when other chems work great too.

[shortly]

It's a damned shame that the European honey bee is such a concern for people, when in fact they are very problematic for our environment. They can outcompete native bees as a result of them being aboe to forage for pollen longer than our native species.

Source.

Apis mellifera can also cause changes in vegetation biodiversity and density, through selectively pollinating certain plant species over others.

Any yet, the concern is for the honey bee, as it is so important for us commerically. As usual, the environment and well-being of native ecosystems gets second place in terms of our priorities.

 

There is a fair bit of anecdotal evidence to suggest that Apis may well have significantly reduced the range of and even the number of species of native bees from southern australia.

The other disturbing news (it was new to me at least) is that small hive beetle seems to be developing a taste for our native colonial bees.

Edited December 20, 2010 by shortly

[ubza_1234]

i'm just curious, but what sort of damage do honey bees do to our environment? Other then attack animals that threaten there hive?

[ThunderIdeal]

boosting the competitiveness of some plants by their selective feeding

[tripsis]

Exactly, they outcompete the native pollinators, then selectively target specific plant species for pollination, thus altering the natural density and diversity of vegetation. This of course results in a top-down effect on other organisms dependent on the proper functioning of ecosystems.

[ubza_1234]

i see. Would they be any more selective then native honey bees? I'll have to do some research on how the 2 differ other then agressiveness amd apearance.

[tripsis]

Native bees have co-evolved with Australian ecosystems and with each other, so while they may be selective, each species fills a specific niche, resulting in a naturally balanced ecosystem. The problem with Apis mellifera is that they change the dynamics of plant-pollinator relationships because they outcompete the natives and then target only what they find of interest. Another problem is that some plant species rely on a technique known as buzz pollination, a technique which is rarely performed by the European honey bee. Native species such as the blue-banded bee perform buzz pollination, but if they are outcompeted in an area by the honey bee, then the plants which rely of them for pollination will end up failing to get pollinated. I assume that that each native species has an overlap of plants they pollinate with those that the honey bee also pollinates, so while there may not be competition for plants which require buzz pollination, the competition would occur for at least some of the species and the honey bee would have the advantage of numbers/size, etc.

[bℓσωηG]