Bee Killer Snuffs Thousands of Florida Hives

By Melissa McCart Tue., Dec. 13 2011 at 11:48 AM

treehugger.com

If it's not colony collapse disorder, it's a crazy bee killer. Hundreds of thousands of bees in Brevard County died this past September, tied to a tainted food supply that contained an insecticide used to kill roaches, ticks, and fleas, county agriculture officials determined yesterday.

The poisoning may have affected more bees than reported in the Florida citrus belt, an area populated with beekeepers harvesting orange blossom honey.

Beekeeper David Webb says he lost $500,000 worth of bees and honey, while Charles Smith of Smith Family Honey Company lost 400 hives and $150,000, his bees dying after sipping tainted syrup from Webb's hives.

The insecticide was found in a container in Webb's truck. "I hate to start pointing fingers," Webb told Florida Today. "I just don't see how it would have been an accident."

Florida has been one of the country's top honey producers, trailing only California and the Dakotas. U.S. honey production has been in decline -- with 2009 the worst year on record -- as the result of colony collapse. Production slightly increased in 2010, according to the Honey Board.

Clean Plate Charlie called four honey producers listed online in our area. Two confirmed they no longer harvest honey and a third said she did not know any more producers who exist in the region, anecdotal evidence of the decline of the state's hobby producers. Nationwide, hobbyists account for 40 percent of U.S. honey production, while 60 percent is harvested from commercial apiaries, largely family owned.

The poisoning marks further failure in the struggle to protect local honey, which has been edged out by cheap imports from China that seem to be coming through India to avoid duties imposed in 2008, reports NPR today on "Funny Honey? Bringing Trust to a Sector Full of Suspicion."

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iwantmo2

If Charles Smith is still out there...I offer up the following. He needs to know when his electric meter was changed out or any equipment upgrade done to it. Progress Energy or FP&L may be liable for damage to his business. I'd hate to see this business man destroyed at the hands of these 'smart meter' bee killers. They are doing damage to the most sentinel of species and are effecting humans as well as they are pulsing 24/7/365 into our environs. All the Best

Man loves his 'SMART meter' http://stopsmartmetersirvine.com/2011/10/29/54/

Effects of electro-smog on bees:
http://www.empowernetwork.com/tmoney777/files/2012/11/BEE-PDF-2.pdf?id=tmoney777

Dutch court overturns cell permit on concern for bees
Monday 5 November 2012 | 14:18 CET | News

A court in Zutphen, Netherlands has annulled a permit for a UMTS antenna due to beekeeping activities in the area. The Winterswijk municipality gave KPN the permit to build the tower in November 2010. Five local residents filed an appeal against the permit, and the court found that the city did not motivate its decision well enough to show there would be no negative consequences from the cell site. One of the residents keeps bees around 80m from the proposed site; in the appeal against the site, he pointed to research in Germany and Switzerland on the effects of electromagnetic radiation on bees. The city pointed to other research showing bee deaths related to other factors and said the radiation in this case would be much less than in the German research. However the court found that the city needed to provide more concrete sources of research to sustain its argument and it could not be ruled out that the site would have an effect on the bees.

http://www.telecompaper.com/news/dutch-court-overturns-cell-permit-on-concern-for-bees--906102

Favre, 2010: http://genevalunch.com/files/2011/05/favre.pdf
Sahib, 2011: http://www.munisentzool.org/yayin/vol6/issue1/396-399.pdf