The European Parliament has backed new protections for bees, thwarting a move by the EU Commission and national governments to maintain outdated guidelines for how to evaluate the dangers of pesticides. The vote at the Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg aims to ensure that more…
By Mayukh Saha At a meeting of the Royal Geographic Society of London, Earthwatch Institute declared bees the most invaluable species on this planet, as reported by The Guardian in 2008. And along with it comes this disturbing piece of news. If bees were to…
By Mayukh Saha Two Detroit locals have taken a sweet initiative to fight inner-city urban blight by taking abandoned lots and converting them into full-fledged urban bee farms. Detroit Hives, a non-profit organization, has been working towards both honey bee conservation and city refurbishment since…
By Sara Tipton Before deciding to get into beekeeping, it’s important to know what you’re signing up for. It may seem daunting, but beekeeping comes down knowing the basics. If you’ve considered getting a colony or more of bees, make sure you figure out the…
By Andrea Germanos The German government announced Wednesday it had agreed on a plan to phase out the use of glyphosate—the key chemical in the weedkiller Roundup—with a total ban set to begin by the end of 2023. “Way to go, Germany!” tweeted the U.S.-based…
By Mayukh Saha The latest beekeeper from the UK to come up in the headlines is Archie Cridland. He maintains an enormous colony of nearly 60,000 bees and now at just 5 years old proudly bears the tag of being Britain’s youngest certified beekeeper. This…
By Jessica Corbett Pointing to the deaths of more than half a billion bees in Brazil over a period of just four months, beekeepers, experts, and activists are raising concerns about the soaring number of new pesticides greenlighted for use by the Brazilian government since…
By Tyler Durden Bee apocalypse has unfolded in four of Brazil’s southern states in 1Q19. More than half a billion bees died earlier this year, in a short period, experts are suggesting that pesticides are likely to be blamed, reported Bloomberg. Around half a billion bees…
By Tyler Durden A new study shows how “insect apocalypse” is unfolding across America’s farmland since neonicotinoid pesticides were introduced several decades ago. Researchers found that farmland across the country is 48 times more toxic to insect life than 25 years ago, and neonicotinoid pesticides account for a…
By Alex Pietrowski There is a time bomb ticking away that spells disaster for human beings and the quality of life on planet earth. We’ve been watching and waiting, covering this story for years, and the more time goes by the more bad news keeps…
By John Vibes In recent years, the world has finally begun to take notice of the drastically declining bee populations, and people are starting to understand the impact that this could have on the ecosystem. Slowly, people who care are working to correct this problem…
By Jake Johnson The rapid and dangerous decline of the insect population in the United States—often called an “insect apocalypse” by scientists—has largely been driven by an increase in the toxicity of U.S. agriculture caused by the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, according to a study published Tuesday in…
Adjuvants not as benign to honey bees as previously thought Adjuvants are chemicals that are commonly added to plant protection products, such as pesticides, to help them spread, adhere to targets, disperse appropriately, or prevent drift, among other things. There was a widespread assumption that…
By Mayukh Saha Over the past few decades, bees have been disappearing. The number of honeybees in America is only half of the population that existed fifty years ago. Many species are on the verge of becoming extinct. While no one reason can be pointed…
By Elias Marat While the role played by honeybees and wild bees as important pollinators is well known, the bumblebee also plays a crucial role in maintaining the health and viability of crops such as chili peppers and tomatoes. And now, researchers at the National…
By Elias Marat The Dutch city of Utrecht has taken a unique approach to managing its air quality by installing green roofs filled with flowers and plants on top of its bus stops. The move will not only help Utrecht achieve its ambition of becoming…
By Elias Marat The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has suspended its annual surveys of the honeybee population as the federal agency increasingly turns toward representing big agricultural interests rather than regulating them. Citing the need for budget cuts, the Trump administration’s suspension of the…
Bees are valuable to humans not only because they produce honey, but also because they pollinate wildflowers and food crops. They exclusively eat nectar and pine pollen. So in areas where intensive agriculture is practised, they suffer from the thin supply of flowers in May…
By Arjun Walia In Brief The Facts: The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced “emergency” approvals to spray sulfoxaflor — an insecticide considered “very highly toxic” to bees — on nearly 14 million acres of crops known to attract bees. Reflect On: Why do corrupt federal…
Beekeepers across the United States lost 40.7% of their honey bee colonies from April 2018 to April 2019, according to preliminary results of the latest annual nationwide survey conducted by the University of Maryland-led nonprofit Bee Informed Partnership. The survey results indicate winter losses of…
