Bee population

S.A. (1991). PC BEEPOP, an ecotoxicological simulation model for honey bee populations. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 10, 547-558. 

Pesticides act in two ways to reduce bee populations. First, many pesticides necessary in crop production are highly toxic to honey bees. In this category, we principally find insecticides. Second, the use of herbicides reduces the acreages of attractive plants for the bees to forage on. Pesti-... 

Because of difficulties in determining the loss of bees in the native non-Apis bee population, the impact of agrochemicals on native pollinators... 

Few experiments have been conducted to assess the behavior of bee populations on GM plants on a large scale, most probably because of the rather drastic regulatory conditions imposed of the production of precommercialized GM plants in the field. However, some observations of bees exposed to transformed plants have been reported. 

Not nicotine itself, but there are a number of insecticides based on nicotine that have recently been implicated in the recent serious decline in the bee population. These insecticides... 

A report published by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) in January 2013 concluded that these pesticides posed a high acute risk to pollinators, including honeybees. Although the evidence is not conclusive, the EU banned the use of three of these neonicotinoid pesticides, clothianidin, thiamethoxam and imidacloprid (currently the most widely used insecticide in the world), for 2 years from 2014 onwards. Time will tell if the bee population recovers. 

The proper choice and appHcation of an insecticide for pest control are predicated upon factors, eg, the life history and ecology of the pest, the relation of pest population to economic damage, the effect of the insecticide on the pest or its plant or animal host, related organisms in the ecosystem, and proper timing of the appHcation to prevent illegal residues at harvest and to avoid damaging of bees and other pollinating insects. 

It is very clear, therefore, that there have been many examples of neurotoxic effects, both lethal and sublethal, caused by pesticides in the field over a long period of time. Far less clear, despite certain well-documented cases, is to what extent these effects, especially sublethal ones, have had consequent effects at the population level and above. Interest in this question remains because neurotoxic pesticides such as pyre-throids, neonicotinoids, OPs, and carbamates continue to be used, and questions continue to be asked about their side effects, for example, on fish (Sandahl et al. 2005), and on bees and other beneficial insects (see, for example, Barnett et al. 2007). 

Acknowledgments Preparation of this review was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of NIDA, NIH, DHHS, and by a new investigator grant awarded to BEE from the CIHR Strategic Training Program in Tobacco Use In Special Populations. 

Biology offers innumerable examples where the increase of complexity is attended by the onset of sophisticated emergent properties. In the previous chapter the beehive-like structure of silicon fluids was mentioned if we now consider a real honeycomb, each bee appears to behave as an independent element, acting apparently on its own account, but the whole population of bees gives a highly sophisticated collective emergent structure. The same can be said for an anthill or... 

Aminocarb. Next to fenitrothion, aminocarb has been the insecticide used most extensively in forestry in Canada over the past decade. Application rates of up to 0.175 kg/ha have been found to have little or no impact on forest songbird populations or small mammal breeding activity, but do cause considerable knockdown of terrestrial arthropods, particularly at higher application rates (35, 36). Short-lived but fairly extensive honeybee mortality has been documented when aminocarb has been applied while active foraging was underway, but the overall colony vigor was not seriously effected (37 ). Aminocarb does not appear to cause bumble bee mortality at operational application rates, but does affect solitary bees ( 18). 

Bees have been used therapeutically in some animal populations for treatment of a variety of disorders. A recent study examined the effects of bee stings on sows with hypogalactia syndrome postpartum. Complications expected from this type of therapy are primarily local effects as well as more systemic hemorrhagic effects. 

The toxicity to mammals of the JH-active insecticides is very low. In the World Health Organization (WHO) classification system, they are all in class III (Table V). The rat oral LD50 (lethal dose in 50% of the population) is >5000 mg/kg, and the toxicity to fish and birds is also low. Indications for mutagenic, carcinogenic, or teratogenic effects are not found. To bee larvae, JH-active insecticides are, of course, rather toxic (e.g., 0.1 pg/bee for hydroprene), while for adult bees they are essentially nontoxic. 

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