Discovery of link between beehive collapse and pesticides falls on 50th anniversary of Silent Spring

Recently, scientists have linked colony collapse disorder in honey bees to use of neonicotinoid pesticides. It's the first time pesticide use has been linked to the disorder, which disorients bees so they can't find their way back to their hive, and subsequently kills them. Elizabeth Kolbert of The New Yorker provides a round-up of the recent pesticide studies, and reminds us that the latest discovery falls on the eve of the 50th anniversary of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, which first alerted the world to the harmful effects of another pesticide: DDT. (New Yorker photo)

Three studies, one British, one French and one American, have all found that bees given doses of neonicotinoids were significantly less likely to return to their hives, and most died. Pennsylvania beekeeper Dave Hackenberg was one of the first to draw attention to CCD, and one of the first to suggest a link between the disorder and pesticides. Kolbert asked him what he thought about the recent study findings. "This more or less proves what we thought all along," Hackenberg said. "I think we've got a toxic mess."

Neonicotinoids were introduced in the 1990s, and are a neurotoxin to insects. Kolbert writes they are known as systemic pesticides because seeds are treated with the chemical that is later taken through the plants vascular system. The Pesticide Action Network says at least 140 million acres, or an area larger than California and Florida combined, of crops were planted with neonicotinoids in 2010. (Read more)