Here, we explore honey bee reactions to two new plant protection products: sulfoxaflor and flupyradifurone

As we learned today, on 9 October 2015, the European Commission and Member States have authorised Flupyradifurone, a new neonicotinoid insecticide.

We measured the distribution of sugar solution within groups of caged honey bees (Apis mellifera) under standard in vitro laboratory conditions using 14C polyethylene glycol as a radioactive marker to analyze ingestion by individual bees after group feeding.

In this study, honeybees’ foraging activities, as well as their seasonal and monthly abundance were studied and evaluated.

A larval rearing method was adapted to assess the chronic oral toxicity to honey bee larvae of the four most common pesticides detected in pollen and wax - fluvalinate, coumaphos, chlorothalonil, and chloropyrifos - tested alone and in all combinations

This study describes the impact of sublethal doses of 4 pesticides on size and morphology of the honeybee worker’s hypopharyngeal glands.

Monitoring & analysis of honey bee losses in over 36 countries is mainly carried out by citizen science & volunteer beekeepers.

Of the 320 samples received from the competent authorities of the participating countries, 147 (46 %) were suspicious.

From the beginning, producers of these new insecticides denied their effects on bees: ‘bees don’t reach the molecule’, ‘ghosting is well under control’, ‘doses are harmless’...

Honey bees are crucial for our ecosystems as pollinators, but the intensive use of plant protection products (PPPs) in agriculture poses a risk for them.