Insecticide Residual Toxicity to Honey Bees

Apis mellifera, the common honeybee, is an industrious and vital element of nature. Given its small size and ubiquitous nature across the globe, many take it for granted in its role in agriculture and everyday life. In the quest to remove unwanted insect pests from gardens and crops, growers have utilized a series of chemicals which inadvertently have left residual poisons in honeybees.

Growing and Insecticides

• Since the advent of commercial insecticides to control pests, many growers have utilized them without consideration of the long-term effect on other species. Given their success, it is no wonder that even residential gardeners make use of these products. Popular insecticides such as Sevin are highly effective at controlling garden pests, but are also cited as dangerously toxic to honeybee populations. Unfortunately, without a public education campaign about the dangers to bees, many growers use insecticides without knowing the harm they can potentially inflict.

Effects on Honey Bees

• Because many insecticides don't kill honeybees outright, the toxicity from them often accumulate in their appendages, in the pollen they carry and in their bodies. These toxins can work their way into the honey and into the queen, eventually killing the members as toxicity levels reach lethal levels. However, bees need not die to cause a hive to fail. The symptoms of residual toxicity can cause honey bees to be afflicted with paralysis, stupor, strange activity, aggression or poor ability to communicate. These can disrupt the normal operation of a hive, causing starvation or the inability to produce offspring. Residual toxins are considered at least a part of what has caused the recent massive declines in bee populations across the globe.

Effects on People

• Given that honeybee products are a multibillion-dollar industry, the intrusion of toxins into honey or beeswax creates considerable fiscal problems. Honeybees are vital to commercial agriculture, so reduced population creates an even greater financial impact on society. However, monetary reasons alone are just a tiny part of the impact of lowered bee populations. Humankind needs bees to sustain its agricultural capacity. Without that capability, the global population would rapidly exceed the capability to feed it.

What Is Being Done?

• Because scientists are unable to pin massive honeybee deaths to any specific cause, there have been little effort to inform the public about the dangers of residual toxicity to bee populations by nations or government groups. However, some states have introduced legislation to control the use of insecticides that most endanger bees. Some growers have resorted to changing how they use insecticides to minimize impact on bees, such as applying them in the evening when bee activity is low. Ultimately, however, without a concerted campaign of action from nations or governments, the responsibility to limit honeybee residual toxicity falls to those who use the pesticides.