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unhappycamper

(60,364 posts)
Tue Sep 23, 2014, 06:35 AM Sep 2014

What is killing Bristol County's bees?

http://www.tauntongazette.com/article/20140923/NEWS/140929061/1994/NEWS

What is killing Bristol County's bees?

Dan Wilbur’s bees are dropping like flies.

Ailing pollinators take off from his backyard hive. Some sink and crawl drunkenly toward the neighbor’s driveway.

Others land on their backs and twitch until death. A wasp has been making the rounds, feeding on the dying honeybees.

~snip~

He has been documenting “bee kills” from Swansea to Barrington, Rhode Island, and said tests performed on bees have revealed the presence of 218 different chemicals.
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What is killing Bristol County's bees? (Original Post) unhappycamper Sep 2014 OP
Yesterday I took notice of a familiar sight TexasProgresive Sep 2014 #1

TexasProgresive

(12,148 posts)
1. Yesterday I took notice of a familiar sight
Tue Sep 23, 2014, 07:05 AM
Sep 2014

It was a trash can outside of a convenience store that bees were working. The thought occurred to me that the bees are not only going after fructose sweetened soda but may be fooled by aspartame sweetened soda. So a hypotheses began to form in my mind that perhaps a cause for honey bee decline may be artificial sweeteners that have become ubiquitous in our culture. This is not to let Neonicotinoids which act on the nervous system as well.

Both of these chemicals are relatively new in our environment and should be considered for extensive research.
Edit:

He has been documenting “bee kills” from Swansea to Barrington, Rhode Island, and said tests performed on bees have revealed the presence of 218 different chemicals.

“Some call it a canary in a mine,” Andrews explained. “I put it this way: Honeybees are very good samplers.
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