Thursday 15 September 2016

US beekeepers fear for livelihoods as anti-Zika toxin kills 2.5m bees

‘It kills everything’: conservationist warns over threat to other animals
Regulators: ‘clear and public health crisis’ allows use of Naled chemical

Alan Yuhas in San Francisco

Sunday 4 September 2016 11.55 BSTLast modified on Sunday 4 September 201622.05 BST

Huddled around their hives, beekeepers around the south-eastern US fear a new threat to their livelihood: a fine mist beaded with neurotoxin, sprayed from the sky by officials at war with mosquitos that carry the Zika virus.

Earlier this week, South Carolina beekeepers found millions of dead honey bees carpeting their apiaries, killed by an insecticide. Video posted by a beekeeper to Facebook showed thousands of dead insects heaped around hives, while a few survivors struggled to move the bodies of fellow bees.

“This is what’s left of Flowertown Bees,” a despondent keeper says in the video. Company co-owner Juanita Stanley told the Associated Press her farm looked “like it’s been nuked” and estimated 2.5 million bees were killed.

 “This is what’s left of Flowertown Bees”, where up to 2.5 million bees were killed by an aerial spray meant to combat the Zika virus. Video: So many bees dead after the aerial spray.
In another Facebook post, South Carolina hobbyist Andrew Macke wrote that he had lost “thousands upon thousands of bees” and that the spraying had devastated his business. “Have we lost our mind,” he wrote, “spraying poison from the sky?”

Around the US, bees and other pollinators contribute an estimated $29bn to farm income. Clemson University’s department of pesticide regulation is investigating the incident.


No comments:

Post a Comment

You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!

Related Posts with Thumbnails

ShareThis