steps this year to reduce the amount of dust generated by seeding machines, using a waxy lubricant with the seeds and fitting machinery with air deflectors.
Density is another possible factor in the numbers of bee deaths in Ontario. The province’s ever-shrinking farm country means fewer bee-friendly meadows and fallow fields, said Dan Davidson of the Ontario Beekeepers’ Association. And beekeepers who want to move their hives away from a farm planting corn have fewer places to go.
The move to control use of pesticides
Last winter, Europe banned for two years the use of three types of neonicotinoids. The pesticides, which generally coat seeds, are widely used in North America on corn, canola and about 50 per cent of soybeans, in addition to greenhouse flowers and vegetables. Provinces lack the power to ban pesticides, which are regulated by Health Canada. But Ontario is poised to become the first to regulate them by moving toward a licensing system that would require commercial growers apply to use them.
“Our goal is to develop a system that targets the use of neonicotinoid-treated seed to areas or circumstances where there is demonstrated need, recognizing the important role both pollinators and farmers play in Ontario’s agrifood industry,” Jeff Leal, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Bees are in trouble worldwide. Between 2006 and 2011, the average yearly decline in managed honey bee colonies in the United States was 33 per cent, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says. In the United Kingdom, 29 per cent of honeybee colonies did not survive the winter of 2012-2013, the highest death rate in Europe.
In Canada, the average winter loss since 2009-2010 is 20 per cent, after reaching a high of 35 per cent in 2007-2008, according to CAPA.
For some fruit growers in China, fewer bees means they have to take matters into their own hands, standing on ladders and using small brushes to do the job of the insects.
“Insect pollination is a vital ecosystem service that maintains biodiversity and sustains agricultural crop yields. Social bees are essential insect pollinators. So it is concerning that their populations are in global decline,” Guelph University professor Nigel Raine said in a study published in the journal Functional Ecology.
Studies link deaths and pesticide
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