# Florida beeks seeing affects of neonictinoids



## broodhead (May 30, 2009)

First hand experience with chemicals used for citrus production makes beekeepers skeptical about working orange for honey. Growers are spraying chemicals like Admire for control of pest that spread citrus greening. These chemicals are extremely cost effective costing a little as five dollars per acre to spray. In comparison, bee friendly less toxic chemicals cost five time the amount of money to spray. I saw first hand this weekend the effect of these chemicals sprayed in groves, I have pictures depicting the death of the hive and witnessed sick bees pulling the pupa out of the hive with piles of dead bees at the entrance of about 100 hives. 
The action of the bees was exactly like a termite kill from the same neonics, pulling the pupa and larva out and distributing in front of the hive. We removed the bees from the grove on Sat night and hopefully can get them on a road to recovery. The EPA is in Florida at this very moment checking the kill of large numbers of colonies that were set on the orange crops, hopefully something good can come out of this terrible loss. Mr. Putnam the Commissioner of Agriculture should prohibit the use of this toxic chemical at all cost. require the grove owners to spray non systemic chemicals and put strict requirements on the use of all neonics.


----------



## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

What chemicals were applied?


----------



## broodhead (May 30, 2009)

Admire


----------



## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

....in the Penn state work, it was only in orchards where citrus greening was being actively treated that imidacloprid was found in any significant amounts in trapped pollen.
Deknow


----------



## wildbranch2007 (Dec 3, 2008)

I'm not familiar with admire but a google search shows, now this chemical has more labels than I have ever seen. I copied part of one label below.

Important details include:
•Change in the annual amount that can be applied to young citrus trees 5 to 9 feet tall in Florida
•Application to this tree size class cannot occur between November 1 and full petal fall <--- now only pertains to the new change for the infection from the original poster
•Changes only apply to the specific tree size targeted with this request
•The SLN approval is for a fixed period which ends Dec. 31, 2014

so the way I read this label, and this was for a drench not spray, they can't do the drench between Nov 1 and full petal fall.
were your bees in the orchard or was it another orchard that did the spray?
what are the bee friendly, less toxic chemicals that can be user?


----------



## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

broodhead said:


> Mr. Putnam the Commissioner of Agriculture should prohibit the use of this toxic chemical at all cost. require the grove owners to spray non systemic chemicals and put strict requirements on the use of all neonics.


I wonder if the orange growers won’t just refuse to allow beekeepers to put hives in their groves. Or possibly charge the beekeepers enough in rent to make up the difference in the cost of the compounds. The oranges don’t need bees.


----------



## broodhead (May 30, 2009)

Florida is infested with citrus greening, these chemicals are being used to combat that disease spread by a psyllids. Growers are under pressure to control this disease or they are in deep trouble. There is no doubt that grove owners will be less likely to allow beekeepers into their groves in the future. I was told that this is the last year bees will be permitted to be placed in the area where I have kept bees for years. When you look at the thousands of acres being sprayed it is almost impossible to not have problems created by this application.


----------



## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

I think anyone who has been paying attention knows that the Florida citrus industry is in deep trouble. A very sad situation. Made even sadder by its impact on beekeeping....not to mention the immeasurable loss of native pollinators from these same compounds.


----------

