"BRIGHTON, UK -- Controversial pesticides ingested by bumble bees can seriously impact the insects’ ability to collect food, even at very low levels of contamination, finds new research from the University of Sussex and the University of Stirling."
"The study shows that even tiny doses of a neonicotinoid pesticide called imidacloprid reduce the amount of pollen collected by bumblebee colonies by 57 percent, and that the effects last for at least a month after exposure.
Neonicotinoids are the most widely used insecticides in the world, with about 80 tonnes applied to 1.3 million hectares in the UK alone. They are mostly applied as a seed dressing, and being systemic they are absorbed by the growing crop and spread through its tissues."
Environment News Service had the story January 29, 2014.
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