A bee busily pollinates a canola flower.

Chemical companies pitch bug-killing options

Some environmentalists say just switching to new products won’t solve the underlying problem

Companies that make bug-killing chemicals and natural remedies are racing to take advantage of restrictions on neonics, blamed for harming bees and mayflies. Global sales of neonicotinoids, or neonics, were US$3.01 billion last year, accounting for almost 18 per cent of the global insecticides market, according to consultancy Phillips McDougall. Insecticide sales fell sharply year

Neonic makers respond to Health Canada actions

Neonic makers respond to Health Canada actions

The plan is to phase out imidacloprid while clothianidin and thiamethoxam, 
popular in seed treatments, will undergo a special review

[Updated Dec. 9] – Several years ago when neonicotinoids were linked to bee and other pollinator deaths sparking calls to ban the insecticides, farmers and neonicotinoid makers strongly defended them. Now those products are under fire again due to their effect on aquatic insect life. Health Canada announced Nov. 23 plans to phase out imidacloprid


Rachel Parkinson (r) and Professor Jack Gray use a “video game” to study pesticide effects on insects.

Flight simulator shows pesticide effects

High-tech approach at the University of Saskatchewan uses virtual reality more common to video games


A research project at the University of Sask­atchewan is using a virtual reality flight simulator to measure how locusts are affected by pesticides. Rachel Parkinson, a biology master’s student, is trying to see how insects react to neonicotinoids. “There is a lot of controversy over these pesticides,” said biology professor, Jack Gray, Parkinson’s supervisor. “They

Close up view of the working bees on honeycells.

Bee health creating a buzz

The bee industry wants to see government support for ongoing research to continue

While bee health has received a lot of attention in Canada in recent years, it’s not time to stop learning about them, says the head of the Canadian Honey Council. Kevin Nixon, the organization’s president, told the Senate agriculture committee there’s still plenty to learn about bees and what’s causing overwintering losses and how various


Honeybee numbers and production appear to be rebounding.

Honeybee colonies and production are up

Mitigation measures implemented in 2014 appear to be working

Steps taken to protect honeybees from crop protection products appear to be working. The number of honeybee colonies and their level of production has been rising since 2013, according to testimony to the Senate agriculture committee. Andrea Johnson, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) director general of sector development told the committee the most recently available

A new study of 75 bee colonies across Scotland suggests one of the so-called “neonics” may not be like the others in its potential risk to bumblebees.


Study finds not all neonics equal when it comes to risks to bees

Clothianidin, the active ingredient in Poncho and Prosper, may have got a bad rap

A group of chemical insecticides known as neonicotinoids that has been banned in Europe due to fears about potential harm to bees has been found in new research to have very differential risks for bumblebees. Scientists who conducted the research said their findings showed that at least one neonicotinoid in the banned group — clothianidin


Entomologist Christian Krupke at the Purdue Bee Laboratory with pollen collected by Indiana honeybees.

Non-crop plants source of most pesticide contamination of bees

One of the most common sources of pollen contamination is home pest control products

Urban landscapes may bear more responsibility for exposing bees to pesticides than previously thought. A recent study from Purdue University, published in the academic journal Nature Communications, found honeybees gathered the vast majority of pollen from non-agriculture crops and were being exposed to both agricultural and domestic pesticides. Entomologist Christian Krupke found pollen samples contained

European corn borer might prefer grain crops normally, but it’s not opposed to settling into a potato crop too if conditions are right.

Corn borers develop taste for potatoes

Canadian potato growers found a new insect foe in the 2015 season — European corn borer. Ordinarily the pest prefers maize and other grain crops, but when conditions are right it will move on and hit other crops hard, including potatoes. Ian MacRae, an extension entomologist at Minnesota’s Northwest Research and Outreach Center, told Manitoba


An apiarist covers beehives on a truck after his bees completed pollinating a blueberry field near Columbia Falls, Maine in June 2014. Honeybees are estimated to pollinate plants that produce about a quarter of the food consumed by Americans, including apples, watermelons and beans.

Vital to food output, pollinators face rising risk

A new global study explores the concerns over pesticides and loss of habitat

Bees and other pollinators face increasing risks to their survival, threatening foods such as apples, blueberries and coffee worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year, the first global assessment of pollinators showed on Feb. 26. Pesticides, loss of habitats to farms and cities, disease and climate change were among threats to about 20,000 species

Bringing out the ‘wild side’ of fruits and veggies

Bringing out the ‘wild side’ of fruits and veggies

It might be a cheaper alternative than developing new methods

The natural ability of plants to fend off pests is falling through the cracks in our modern quest for fruits and vegetables varieties that have larger sizes, better colour and a longer shelf life, researchers with Newcastle University in the U.K. say. A study published recently in the academic journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development said