Pesticides – Death and destruction to bees

This week, in my personal back yard – I have experienced a fairly fast die-off of 5 colonies.   These bees were here simply for the purposes of building them up to be strong, so they could be placed onto agriculture contracts.

Usually, I’ll give a build-up and background before I tell the meat of what’s in a story.   Not this time.   I contacted a friend whom I have worked with in the past who is in the pest-control industry – whom works for probably the largest company in America for pest control.   I told him the symptoms I observed, and that is was across all 5 colonies in the same yard… and he had a quick diagnosis – that he feels 99% sure about.

Termidor ( with fipronil ).   Termidor is a wide-spectrum target pest control that targets insects that groom each other.  The powerful poison is intentionally NOT a “repellent” – so the insects get it on their bodies, and carry it home, to be groomed off of them.  The grooming activity affects their groomers.. and it quickly is passed around to all the bees in the colony, including the retinue of bees caring for the queen.

Termidor is used as a pre-construction ground drench for new construction homes and buildings.   While there are a LOT of new construction areas in North Texas, I don’t feel like that’s the case in the 3 mile radius around MY home.    There are, however, a LOT of established neighborhoods that were built in the 1970’s,

Termidor is also used in standard household (and commercial buildings) – because of it’s transportability to the entire colony.   If a neighbor within flight range has a pest (bee) problem – and the pest control operator uses Termidor – then the colony there dies… but SO DOES EVERY COLONY THAT HAS BEES THAT COME TO FORAGE ON THE LEFTOVER RESOURCES IN THAT TREATED COLONY!  The same results happen if blooming plants (i.e. Crape Myrtles) are treated with insecticides while wanting to target mosquitoes or other “pests”.   Fipronil / Termidor is an indiscriminate killer.

My buddy is 99% sure this is what happened.   He has spoken with another beekeeper this year in a rural area that has new construction going in – and they experienced 3 colonies dying with a 21-day period after ground work started for new neighborhoods to be built.

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Dead bees on the landing board

What I experienced….

When I wake – generally between 4am-5am, I’ll turn on the kitchen light to start the coffee maker.  Usually, bees see the kitchen light, and fly from their woodenware hive bodies in my back yard – to the kitchen window to try to get in – thinking the light they see is the sun.

This week – there’s been an absence of that activity.   After making this morning’s rounds to customer locations this morning with Laura, I decided to open up a couple of hives to see what’s going on “In the hive” in my own back yard.

Devastated.   That’s all I can say on the matter.

All 5 colonies have a handful of dead bees on their landing-board.   A hand-full of dead bees on the bottom boards inside the hive.    Emerging brood that never made it out of their pupation cells, some previously emerged adult bees crawling around, bodies trembling / jerky – as if they had some neurological problem… No queens.

These 5 sets of woodenware.  Boxes, frames, foundation, bottom boards, and lids – will all be put into the burn pit.

There’s a LOT of feelings and emotions I’m feeling today.

Following significant concerns about bee populations, the European Union and other countries have restricted or banned the use of fipronil in agriculture.     The USA / EPA / USDA needs to follow suit.