Thousands of bees dying in Tillsonburg
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Hundreds of thousands of bees have been slowly dying across North America over the past several years and only recently have we discovered why.
Tillsonburg bee keepers Len and Diane Ladoucer, who keep their bees at Butternut Farm in Courtland, have been hit hard, losing most of their hives.
“I think initially we were getting losses going back ten years and we really didn’t know what was the cause of it. We knew there were some diseases in the bee hive and we just chalked it up to mites and possible other bee diseases and maybe the winters and the weather,” said Len Ladoucer.
“In 2012 we noticed that within days of the planting of the corn that there was a high mortality in the bees coming into the hive - they were dying at the entrance,” he said. “Between the spring of 2012 and 2013 we lost nine out of our ten hives. As the information started coming through in 2012, we realized that there was a chemical involved in it too, an insecticide - one of them being neonicotinoids.”
Ladoucer said that the worst impact came last year shortly after certain crops were planted at nearby farms.
“In 2012 we noticed that after the crops were put in, particularly the corn crop that was adjacent to the bees, within yards of them,” he added. “Within a couple of days we had massive die outs in front of our hives here in Courtland and it raised alarm bells that there was a possible linkage to the seeding.”
Several area bee keepers, including the Ladoucer’s decided to collect samples of the dead bees, freeze them and take them to Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) – a government agency, to let them know what they were experiencing.
“The bees were coming in (the hive) then they were shuddering and falling down – it appeared to be affecting their nervous system.”
The Ladoucer’s did some ground work and research and found that area farmers were using seed treatments going back several years.
“They tell us that over 90 percent of the seeds planted, both soya beans and corn are treated with neonicotinoids or a similar agent,” explained Ladoucer. “It’s systemic to the plant – the seed is coated and it goes into the plant. They made it strong enough that it goes up into the tassel to kill the corn borer or any insect that eats that plant. In our research (we found) it is deadly for both bees and earthworms.”
Ladoucer noted that with not a lot of studies done on the bees and insecticide, there is concern that the neonicotinoids could also possibly harm other mammals including wild turkeys, birds, other pollinators and eventually humans.
Bees play a crucial role in helping maintain our ecosystem and approximately one-third of the world’s food crops and combined with other pollinators, close to 90 percent of wild plants – simply by pollinating them.
“If we don’t have bees, we’re not going to have the foods that we eat on a day to day basis,” said Diane Ladoucer. “We’re at the farmers market every Saturday and people always come up and ask how our bees are doing.”
In May 2013 representatives from both the federal and provincial governments – an Ontario bee inspector and a PMRA technician, went to the Ladoucer’s bee yard in Courtland and took samples. The PMRA technician took a mite sample and found no mites in the solution noted Ladoucer, yet that hive was dying.
“They took my samples I had frozen plus they took new samples of the bees at the hive,” he said. “They did say in their statement (in a reply in June) that it was a result of the corn and soya bean treatment. They thought there was chemical poisoning of the bees.”
The Ontario government has recently created a bee-health working group that will aim to protect honey bees. Members of the working group include bee keepers, agricultural scientists, farmers and members of the pesticide industry. Recommendations are expected by next spring.
“I’m deeply concerned – and I’m only a hobbyist bee keeper,” said Ladoucer. “It’s the people that are depending upon this for their living, they’re being devastated by the losses.”
In order to ensure a future for bees further testing may be needed and tough questions asked.
“We suspect that the whole food chain is in jeopardy, including the birds, the bees, other insects that are pollinators and animals and mammals in the food chain,” said Ladoucer.
“Possibly, we need a moratorium like they did in Europe for two years - to do some more studies and re-evaluate the whole process.”
Joining other bee keepers across Ontario and Quebec, the Ladoucer’s plan to have a petition to ban the use of neonicotinoids at the Tillsonburg Farmer’s Market this Saturday, July 20, 2013. In addition, Len Ladoucer will be hosting a presentation on bees and honey at the Oxford County Museum School’s summer event, ‘Down on the Farm’, Saturday, July 20 from 1-4 p.m. in Ingersoll.