THE LATEST BUZZ FOR BEES
05 Jun 2018
Neonicotinoids are widely known to be bad news for bees. With the rapid decline of the bee population, the EU now plans to place a ban on the world’s most widely used pesticide.
Much of what humans eat can be traced back to the role bees play as pollinators, whether that be by pollinating the vegetables and fruits that we eat, or those consumed by the animals we eat.
Dramatically declining bee populations is therefore a concern for all, which is why there are increasing efforts to apply the brakes. In 2016, the US Fish and Wildlife Service placed bees on the endangered list for the first time, a move that will help protect their habitats from land development, invasive plant species and the effects of climate change.
But habitat loss isn't the only thing threatening the livelihood of bees around the world. Pesticides play an important role in protecting crops from critters, but they are, by nature, indiscriminate and can cause harm to important pollinating insects.
One particularly potent example is a family of pesticides called neonicotinoids, which interfere with key energy-producing molecules and leave the bees immobile and starving. Researchers have recently made progress towards advanced, selective neonicotinoid pesticides that take out other bugs while leaving bees unharmed, but the EU is looking to take a broad-spectrum approach and believes it's now time to act.
It first banned the use of neonicotinoids in 2013, but only on certain flowering crops that bees found particularly attractive, such as sunflowers. The European Food Safety Authority has now conducted a review of those restrictions and deemed that they aren’t enough.
EU member states have now voted in favour of a complete ban on outdoor use of three neonicotinoid insecticides: imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam, meaning that they can still be used in permanent, closed greenhouses. The European Commission will adopt the regulations in the coming weeks and they are expected to take effect by the end of 2018.