Purdue Univ. Reports Clothianidin At "Unprecedented Levels" in U. S. Is "Highly Toxic to Honey Bees"

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Purdue Univ. Reports Clothianidin At "Unprecedented Levels" in U. S. Is "Highly Toxic to Honey Bees"

April 27th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Purdue Univ. Reports Clothianidin At “Unprecedented Levels”
in U. S. Is “Highly Toxic to Honey Bees”

“We’ve been subjected to nine years of this carnage
to protect Bayer’s market share.”

– Tom Theobald,Owner, Niwot Honey Farm, Colorado

“Neonicotinoid insecticides in 2012 will be in
nearly 200 million acres of annual U. S. crops. … 2 or 3 billionths of a gram
of clothianidin – if it is fed to the bees in sugar solution – is a lethal dose.”

– Christian H. Krupke, Ph.D., Entomologist, Purdue Univ.

Honey bees fly through Indiana corn tassels accumulating
clothianidin-contaminated pollen on their bodies.
Clothianidin is a neurotoxin that in miniscule amounts
kills honey bees. Image by Peacebeefarm.

Published January 3, 2012, PLoS One.

April 27, 2012 West Lafayette, Indiana – Commercial honey bee colonies and wild pollinators are in serious decline worldwide. Entomologist Christian Krupke, Ph.D., at Purdue University knows that neurotoxins such as the nicotine-based insecticide clothianidin can kill honey bees after the smallest exposures. He also knows that the the number of acres in the United States now being planted with clothianidin-coated seeds is the largest on record – some 200 million acres. And in a January 3, 2012, research article for the science journal PLoS ONE, he explained that “virtually all of the corn seed planted in North America is coated with neonicotinoid insecticides, such as clothianidin and thiamethoxam.”

Prof. Krupke wondered what a study of the agricultural landscape in Indiana would reveal about what ways and how often honey bees are exposed to the nicotine-based toxins? His 2011 investigation was summarized in his recent article this way, “During spring, extremely high levels of clothianidin and thiamethoxam were found in planter exhaust material produced during the planting of treated maize seed. We also found neonicotinoids in the soil of each field we sampled, including unplanted fields. The corn pollen from treated seed and pollen collected by bees and stored in the hive all had clothianidin.” Even the dandelions and other plants growing near planted fields contained nicotine pesticides.

Above: Dandelions next to planted corn field dusted with nicotine pesticides
that below honey bees landed on in Benton County, Indiana, 2011. Image by
John Obermeyer, Purdue Extension Entomology.

Recently I talked with Prof. Krupke about the implications of so many different ways honey bees can be exposed to clothianidin and other neonicotinoids.

Interview:

Play MP3 interview.

Christian H. Krupke, Ph.D., Assoc. Professor of Entomology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana: “So we put the bees through this analysis and the neonicotinoids came up as the insecticide that really stuck out. The only way for honey bees to have exposure to these was being near clothianidin-treated corn seed.

I WAS SHOCKED TO READ IN YOUR STUDY THAT WAS PUBLISHED THAT EVERY SINGLE SEED OF CORN PLANTED IS COVERED WITH CLOTHIANIDIN.

That’s right. Yeah, virtually every corn seed is treated with clothianidin or thiamethoxam, one of the two. Clothianidin goes by the trade name Poncho. Thiamethoxam goes by the trade name Cruiser. Those are the major seed treatment insecticides. Thiamethoxam, when it’s ingested by a bee, becomes clothianidin. So both are very similar nicotine-based compounds. Their mode of action is the same. They are both nerve toxins.

[ Editor’s Note: LSU Ag Center: “Insecticide seed treatments are usually the main component of a seed treatment package. Most corn seed available today comes with a base package that includes a fungicide and insecticide. The insecticide options for seed treatments include Poncho (clothianidin), Cruiser/Cruiser Extreme (thiamethoxam) and Gaucho (Imidacloprid). All three of these products are neonicotinoid chemistries. Cruiser and Poncho at the 250 (.25 mg AI/seed) rate are the most common base options available for corn.” ]

DOESN’T THAT MEAN THAT THE HONEY BEES AND POLLINATORS REALLY DON’T HAVE A CHANCE AS LONG AS THE NEONICOTINOIDS CONTINUE TO BE USED AS SEED COVERINGS AND SPRAY?

Certainly as far as pesticides go, neonicotinoids are covering a large, large portion of the landscape – 150 to 200 million acres this year (2012) of annual crops will have neonicotinoids on them. There will be 94 million acres in corn alone.

So, yeah, one of the reasons these products are so widely used is that they provide systemic and persistent protection early in the season against some pests. But when you get later in the season, when you have pollen produced by these plants, that pollen has these compounds in it as well. These are different because the plants are charged up at planting time; the seeds are coated with this material, which then is taken up by the growing tissues of the plants. So these plants are kind of on to some degree all year.

COULD YOU EXPLAIN HOW SENSITIVE HONEY BEES AND POLLINATORS ARE TO THE NEONICOTINOIDS?

Honey bees are extremely susceptible. So 2 or 3 billionths of a gram of clothianidin – if it is fed to the bees in sugar solution – 2 or 3 billionths of a gram of these compounds is a lethal dose. So, the neonicotinoids are super, super toxic and we’re putting it on crops at an unprecedented amount of acres.

Purdue University Research

Christian K. Krupke, Ph.D., Entomologist, Purdue University, investigating
Indiana honey bee colony in his investigation of how many ways honey bees
can be exposed to and die from nicotine-based insecticides in Tippecanoe City,
Indiana, May 1, 2011. Image by John Obermeyer, Purdue Extension Entomology.

Now, what we found is that during corn planting, there is exhaust material that arises from behind the planter machine in the form of used talc and soil that blows around beyond the field and lands on plants adjacent to the field; it lands on bees if they happen to be there and bees fly through it. And there are many ways that bees can become exposed.

Above: Seed planter putting clothianidin-coated corn seeds in Benton County, Indiana, field on
April 6, 2011, while clothianidin-contaminated dust blows over the soil and any foraging bees.
Below: Clothianidin-coated corn seeds.
Images by John Obermeyer, Purdue Extension Entomology.

There’s a group in Padua, Italy, that did some work where they flew bees behind corn planters. They had a hive on one side and a feeding station at the other side of the field and they just planted the field. The bees fly through that cloud behind the planter and they get covered with dust that has the neonictinoids on it at many times lethal concentration.

[ Editor’s Note: In the January 31, 2012, Environmental Science Technology journal, in “Assessment of the Environmental Exposure of Honeybees to Particulate Matter Containing Neonicotinoid Insecticides Coming from Corn Coated Seeds” from University of Padua, Italy (see Websites below):

“Since seed coating with neonicotinoid insecticides was introduced in the late 1990s, European beekeepers have reported severe colony losses in the period of corn sowing (spring). As a consequence, seed-coating neonicotinoid insecticides that are used worldwide on corn crops have been blamed for honeybee decline. In view of the currently increasing crop production, and also of corn as a renewable energy source, the correct use of these insecticides within sustainable agriculture is a cause of concern.

“In this paper, a probable—but so far underestimated—route of environmental exposure of honeybees to and intoxication with neonicotinoid insecticides, namely, the atmospheric emission of particulate matter containing the insecticide by drilling machines, has been quantitatively studied. Using optimized analytical procedures, quantitative measurements of both the emitted particulate and the consequent direct contamination of single bees approaching the drilling machine during the foraging activity have been determined. Experimental results show that the environmental release of particles containing neonicotinoids can produce high exposure levels for bees, with lethal effects compatible with colony losses phenomena observed by beekeepers. Seed treatments with neonicotinoids are manufactured by Bayer CropScience, BASF, and Monsanto. ]

DOESN’T ALL THIS RESEARCH INDICATE THAT WE’RE NEVER GOING TO HAVE HEALTHY HONEY BEES AND POLLINATORS IF WE DON’T GET RID OF THE NEONICOTINOIDS?

Well, if we want to continue treating these incredibly large acreage with this blanket application of pesticides, is it worth the cost? You cannot reasonably expect to put an insecticide over hundreds of millions of acres and have pollinators of various types, including honey bees, exposed to it and not have negative effects.

OTHER COUNTRIES IN EUROPE SUCH AS FRANCE AND ITALY, THERE ARE HUGE EFFORTS IN EUROPE TO BAN THE NEONIOTINOIDS. AND NOW IN THE UNITED STATES, PESTICIDE ORGANIZATIONS AND ORGANIC FARM ORGANIZATIONS ARE TRYING TO CONVINCE THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY THAT THIS MAKES NO SENSE TO HAVE AN INSECTICIDE THAT SO EASILY KILLS AND SICKENS HONEY BEES WHEN WE NEED THE POLLINATORS TO GROW OUR OWN FOOD.

That’s correct, yeah. There is a linkage between a decline in the health of various pollinators and these nicotine-based pesticides.

Science Versus EPA Conditional
Registrations of Clothianidin

PROF. KRUPKE, IT SEEMS THAT THE COMBINATION BETWEEN THE WORKYOU HAVE DONE AT PURDUE UNIVERSITY AND PUBLISHED IN JANUARY 2012, AND THEN THE UNIVERSITY OF PADUA STUDY IN ITALY ABOUT THE CLOTHIANIDIN DUST COMING FROM THE PLANTERS THEMSELVES BEING LETHAL TO HONEY BEES AND POLLINATORS – THAT IF YOU HAD THOSE TWO STUDIES ALONE IT SHOULD BE ENOUGH TO GIVE PAUSE TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY IN ITS SO-CALLED REGISTRATION AND PARTIAL REGISTRATION OF CLOTHIANIDIN, NO MATTER WHAT BAYER CORP. AND OTHER PRODUCERS OF NICOTINE-BASED PESTICIDES SAY.

Yes, and there has never been any doubt that those kill honey bees. We can debate whether it should have been registered in the first place, but it is now. And it is not only registered, it’s spread over hundreds of millions of acres. But the one thing we know is that we are exposing these honey bees and other pollinators and many other types of insects over an unprecedented acreage. We have never done pest management like this before.

IF WE WERE ABLE TO STOP THE NICOTINE-BASED INSECTICIDES FROM BEING APPLIED IN THE UNITED STATES TOMORROW, HOW LONG WOULD IT TAKE FOR THE SOIL AND PLANTS TO REACH A POINT WHERE THERE WAS NO LONGER ANY NICOTINE-BASED INSECTICIDE KILLING HONEY BEES?

These compounds are very persistent and there is a report from soils they analyzed from Saskatchewan, Canada, where the neonicotinoids persist for 18 to 19 years, the half life. So they are very long lived and in our own work here in Indiana, we found the nicotine compounds in the soil three growing seasons after the first application. So they are long-lived; they are quite persistent, these compounds are.

SO ISN’T IT FAIR AS A REPORTER TO SAY THAT WHAT DAVE HACKENBERG TOLD ME IN FEBRUARY OF 2007 AS A LONG-TIME BEEKEEPER THAT ‘THE NICOTINE-BASED PESTICIDES ARE KILLING HONEY BEES AND POLLINATORS AND WE HAD BETTER SLOW DOWN ITS USE.’

I would say that Dave Hackenberg looks more right today than he ever has – yeah, I would definitely say that.

THE CONDITIONAL REGISTRATION PROCESS IN EPA – SO MANY PEOPLE SAY IT SHOULD BE STOPPED.

Oh, I would agree. It’s been used as a loophole. It’s a form of gerrymandering almost, rigging the system so you can do things you should not be allowed to do. I can see how it would have started when you have emergencies and you need something now. But it’s not used that way in practice. Now it’s used as am end run and then once that something is everywhere, there is a perception that we can’t live without it. It’s a lot harder to get it off the market than it is to stop it from getting on!

Tractor and planter cleaning out clothianidin-contaminated talc in
Tippecanoe County, Indiana, in June 2011. Image by
John Obermeyer, Purdue Extension Entomology.

EPA IS USING CONDITIONAL REGISTRATION OVER AND OVER TO ALLOW THINGS SUCH AS IMIDICLOPRID AND CLOTHIANIDIN TO GET TO MARKET BEFORE THEY HAVE EVEN BEEN JUDGED SAFE OR UNSAFE?

Interview:

Tom Theobald, Owner, Niwot Honey Farm, Niwot, Colorado: “Correct. It’s my understanding that 70% of the active ingredients that have come on the market in the last fifteen years have come on to the market with conditional registrations. Now in many cases, that might be a practical way to deal with it if its a minor concern, something that can be ironed out over time.

But in the case of clothianidin, it was a serious question and this EPA scientist (in November 2010 leaked internal EPA document) believed that clothianidin should not have been released to the market until that research had been completed.

IF CLOTHIANIDIN IS LETHAL TO HONEY BEES AND EPA CONTINUES TO GET AWAY WITH CONDITIONAL REGISTRATIONS AND IGNORES THE LEGAL PETITION, IGNORES HONEY BEEKEEPERS, IGNORES THE SCIENCE – WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY TO THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THIS COUNTRY?

If the EPA is allowed to just pick and choose which regulations and laws it will honor and which it won’t, we have no law. And that’s the situation that we’re in.

With respect to clothianidin, that nicotinoid has failed to meet the requirements of registration! The very criteria that the EPA established itself expecting that it was going to get away with it. And it did not. Clothianidin has failed to meet the requirements of registration. Period! The EPA chooses not to recognize that.

The interesting thing is that clothianidin was rushed to the market not because it was a unique remedy for some sudden insect scourge, but because Bayer’s patent on imidicloprid – Bayer’s first neoniotinoid – was about to run out.

AND BAYER WANTED MORE MONEY.

More money, of course! So we’ve been subjected to nine years of this carnage to protect Bayer’s market share.”

More Information:

For further reports about honey bees, colony collapse disorder (CCD) and pesticide and GMO threats, please see reports below from Earthfiles Archive.

• 03/17/2012 — Airborne Nicotine-Based Insecticide Residues from Pneumatic Drilling/Seeding Machines Kill Honey Bees
• 01/27/2012 — GMOs Have Created Stronger Weeds – Now “Agent Orange” Toxin Under Consideration As Next Stronger Weed Poison
• 06/09/2011 — Winter 2010 Honey Bee Colony Losses Averaged 30% in U. S. But beekeepers are suffering 50% to 60% losses over a year.
• 01/27/2011 — Updated: Leaked EPA Document Says Bayer’s Clothianidin Kills Honey Bees
• 10/28/2010 — Honey Bee Disappearances Not “Solved” by Virus and Fungi
• 07/28/2010 — Bee Expert Says Cell Phones Are Not Cause of Honey Bee Collapse
• 05/05/2010 — Updated: U. S. Honey Bee Industry Struggles with 34% Colonies Loss
• 03/25/2010 — GMO Seed Prices Skyrocket and Justice Department Investigates Monsanto for Antitrust Violation
• 02/18/2010 — U. S. Honey Bee Deaths Increase Again
• 03/30/2009 — European Honey Bee Decline Continues While Aggressive Africanized Honey Bees Attack in Southern U. S.
• 09/26/2008 — NRDC Sues EPA for Honey Bee Lab Data and EPA Approves Another Bee-Killing Pesticide
• 08/31/2008 — Honey Bees Not Healthy in U. S. or U. K.
• 04/10/2008 — Honey Bee Collapse Now Worse on West Coast
• 10/13/2007 — Now Bumblebees Are Disappearing, Too.
• 09/26/2007 — North American Honey Bees Still Weak
• 09/07/2007 — Honey Bee DNA Study Finds Australian Virus in Colony Collapse Disorder
• 06/28/2007 — Hackenberg Apiary, Pennsylvania – 75-80% Honey Bee Loss in 2007. What Happens If Colony Collapse Disorder Returns?
• 05/04/2007 — Environmental Emergency Updates: Part 1 – Spreading Honey Bee Disappearances – Nosema ceranae Not the Answer?
• 04/06/2007 — Collapse of Honey Bees in U. S., Canada and 9 European Countries
• 03/17/2007 — Honey Bee Disappearances Continue: Could Pesticides Play A Role?
• 02/23/2007 — Part 1: Earth Life Threats – Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees

Websites:

PLoS One, January 3, 2012: “Multiple Routes of Pesticide Exposure for Honey Bees Living Near Agricultural Fields”:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0029268

Environmental Science Technology, January 31, 2012, “Assessment of the Environmental Exposure of Honeybees to Particulate Matter Containing Neonicotinoid Insecticides Coming from Corn Coated Seeds,” Univ. of Padua, Italy:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es2035152?prevSearch=ClothianidinsearchHistoryKey=

Chemical Engineering News, March 26, 2012, “Bee Deaths and Seed Treatments – Corn-sowing technique may contribute to honeybee deaths.”:
http://cen.acs.org/articles/90/i13/Bee-Deaths-Seed-Treatments.html

Leaked November 2, 2010, EPA Memo: http://www.panna.org/sites/default/files/Memo_Nov2010_Clothianidin.pdf

Boulder County Beekeepers’ Association: http://www.bouldercountybeekeepers.org/

Tom Theobald: “Plight of the Honey Bee”:
http://www.frontrangeliving.com/cooking/Honeybee.htm

“Translocation of Neonicotinoid Insecticides From Coated Seeds to
Seedling Guttation Drops: A Novel Way of Intoxication for Bees”: http://www.beeccdcap.uga.edu/documents/Girolami.pdf

Pesticides: Germany Bans Chemicals Linked To Honeybee Devastation:
http://www.laleva.org/eng/2008/05/pesticides_germany_bans_chemicals_linked_
to_honeybee_devastation-print.html

Fortune.com, October 8, 2010: “What a scientist didn’t tell The New York Times about
his study on bee deaths,” © 2010 by Katherine Eban:
http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/08/news/honey_bees_ny_times.fortune/index.htm

CBD Press release: Imidacloprid: Long-term risks undervalued, August 2, 2010:
http://www.cbgnetwork.org/3490.html

Coalition Against Bayer Dangers (CBD) Press Releases, 1990 – 2010:
http://www.cbgnetwork.org/269.html

Understanding the Science: the Impact of Imidacloprid On Bees:
http://pierreterre.com/page/impact-imidacloprid-bees

Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association about Imidacloprid:
http://www.metroatlantabeekeepers.org/registration_of_imidacloprid_fro.htm

“Mysterious Honey Bee Disorder Buzzes into Court,” August 19, 2008:
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2008/2008-08-19-092.asp