Daily Poison by Johann G. Zaller

Author:Johann G. Zaller
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030505301
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

2.1.3 Bees and Bumblebees Without Orientation

So far, we did not conduct our own experiments with bees. However, many other studies clearly demonstrated that neonicotinoids not only kill insect pests but also beneficial insects such as wild bees like bumblebees or the domestic honeybees (Fischer et al. 2014). When talking about bees, most people think only of honeybees and perhaps bumblebees. However, there are about 20,000 bee species worldwide, about 4000 alone in the USA; even in a small country like Austria, there are 700 different bee species known.

According to the assessment report on pollinators, pollination, and food production of IPBES, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES 2017), a growing number of pollinator species worldwide are being driven toward extinction by diverse pressures. Pollinators are important contributors to world food production and nutritional security, and their health is directly linked to our own well-being. Besides the many wild bees, many species of butterflies, flies, moths, wasps, beetles, birds, bats, and other animals contribute to pollination. Insect pollinated crops include those that provide fruit, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and oils. It is estimated that more than three-quarters of the world’s food crops rely at least in part on pollination by insects and other animals, which sums up to between 212 and 520 billion € worth of annual global food production that relies on pollinators.

A fact that is often ignored is that nearly 90% of all wild flowering plants also depend at least to some extent on animal pollination. In addition to food crops, pollinators also contribute to crops that provide biofuels such as canola or palm oils, fibers such as cotton, medicines, forage for livestock, and construction materials. Some species also provide materials such as beeswax for candles and musical instruments and arts and crafts. Additionally, an estimated 16% of vertebrate pollinators are threatened with global extinction with a trend toward more extinctions (IPBES 2017).

Insect pollinators are threatened in different regions by a variety of factors. However, generally it can be said that their decline in certain regions is primarily due to changes in land use, intensive agricultural practices and pesticide use, alien invasive species, diseases and pests, and climate change (Sánchez-Bayo and Wyckhuys 2019).

Among the differenct pesticide classes, insecticides are of course the greatest threat to bees. We heard that neonics are extremely toxic to bees; the frequently used active substance clothianidin, for example, is 10,800 times more toxic for bees than the notorious DDT (Pisa et al. 2015). The side effects of neonics have been researched in much detail in the last few years, and a complete ban on this group of active substances is meanwhile in place in Europe and under evaluation in Canada. The discussion has focused primarily on honeybees. However, the findings show that the environmental damage is far more extensive than previously thought. A study found that US agriculture has become 48 times more toxic to insects over the past 25 years and pinned 92% of the toxicity increase on neonicotinoids (DiBartolomeis et al.

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