Syngenta Thrive - 4Q/2013 - 18

andy Oliver faced a serious challenge. Although he had
raised bees since 1967, this California apiarist’s colonies
were nearly wiped out twice by two different parasites: the
tracheal mite in the 1980s and the Varroa mite in the 1990s.
By the time honey bee colony collapse disorder (CCD)
made national headlines in 2007, some reports began
singling out neonicotinoids. These insecticides, used in
seed treatments, foliar products and soil applications,
control thrips, aphids and other yield-robbing pests. Oliver
wasn’t convinced that solving the bee health mystery was
this simple, however.
“The blame-it-all-on-one-thing crowd is off-base,” says
Oliver, a full-time beekeeper from Grass Valley, Calif., who
earned his master’s degree in biological science with a
specialization in entomology. “The biology of bee health is
very complex. Both science and anecdotal evidence make it
clear that insecticides are not the only issue impacting bees.”
Oliver, who manages 1,000 hives with his two sons, says
the scientiﬁc literature and experiences of his fellow
beekeepers conﬁrm his viewpoint. “A beekeeper from
France recently visited me, and he’s seeing many of the
same bee health issues we are, even though his area is
ﬁlled with organic dairies and organic crop production.”
Putting Seed Treatments to the Test
Many university studies from the southern U.S. to Canada
have shown that neonicotinoids are not showing up in the
reproductive parts of plants when used properly, says Gus
Lorenz, Ph.D., a professor of entomology at the University
of Arkansas.
“This is extremely good news for farmers and beekeepers. When my colleagues and I started hearing reports
about declining bee health, we were concerned,” he says.

“We wanted to be as proactive as possible in determining
whether neonicotinoids were causing bee health issues.”
Lorenz and his fellow scientists from Tennessee and
Mississippi collected a massive data set, including soil
samples, wildﬂower samples, soybean ﬂowers, corn pollen
and even the bees themselves, to check for residue from
ﬁelds where growers used neonicotinoid seed treatments.
“In Arkansas alone, we had almost 700 samples,” says
Lorenz, who noted that all the samples were sent to a U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) laboratory in North
Carolina for analysis.
The results showed that very little dust from
neonicotinoid-treated seeds was landing on the wildﬂowers.
In addition, the risk of neonicotinoid residue being transferred to the reproductive parts of wildﬂowers and crops
was extremely low or nonexistent. This is positive not only
for bee health, but for ag productivity, too.
“The neonicotinoid class of chemistry is extremely
important to growers, especially in the mid-South,” Lorenz
says. “Neonicotinoid seed treatments are often the best—
and sometimes the only—way to control insect pests.”
For example, neonicotinoids are vital in cotton production
to manage thrips, which can destroy cotton quality and easily
reduce cotton lint by up to 100 pounds per acre when left
unchecked. “Thrips have been prevalent in recent years, and
neonicotinoid seed treatments have provided much more
effective control than foliar applications,” Lorenz says. Foliar
applications are often more difﬁcult to apply due to inclement
weather early in the spring when frequent rainfall occurs.
Canadian Canola Study Examines Bee Health
Other recent university studies also support the value and
safety of neonicotinoids. The initial data analysis from a

Syngenta Spearheads Operation Pollinator
While Varroa mites have made honey bee
colonies more fragile, so have declining
habitat and reduced food supplies.
To boost bee health, Syngenta developed
Operation Pollinator® to establish pollinator
habitat in ﬁeld borders, hedgerows, ﬁlter
strips, marginal cropland and Conservation
Reserve Program (CRP) land.
“Increasing the amount of ﬂowering habitat
will go a long way toward helping bees,” says
Jay Overmyer, Ph.D., a Syngenta technical
expert in ecotoxicology.
A global initiative, Operation Pollinator
started in Europe more than 12 years ago
and has expanded across the U.S. in the last

16 | thrive

>>>> 4Q 2013

several years. Syngenta has been working with
scientists at the University of Florida, Michigan
State University and the University of California, Davis, to determine what types of
ﬂowering plants can be grown successfully in
one-acre plots adjacent to agricultural ﬁelds.
“The focus is habitat creation and
restoration as well as management for native
pollinators,” says Overmyer, who noted that
Syngenta is also working with Marriott
International, Inc., to establish Operation
Pollinator plots on Marriott’s U.S. golf courses.
“We don’t have all the answers yet, but
Operation Pollinator is providing new options
to protect bee health.”

Donn Waage with the National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation checks out an Operation Pollinator plot
near the University of California, Davis.

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Syngenta Thrive - 4Q/2013

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