Does Film Solve Honey Bee Mystery?

SOURCE: http://news.aol.com/article/film-blames-drug-company-for-honey-bees/695515

(Sept. 29) – In recent years, scientists have been grappling with a biological mystery: the death of honey bees throughout the world. Now a new film proposes a culprit, reports The Independent.

According to 'Vanishing of the Bees,' which will be released in Britain next month, the latest generation of pesticides is at fault.

More specifically, the filmmakers pin the rap on neonicotinoid pesticides, said the paper. These compounds, many of them made by Bayer, are used widely in Britain and the U.S., although they have been banned in France.

In theory, neonicotinoids should not affect honey bees, said The Independent. But George Langworthy and Maryam Henein, who made the film, believe that even a low-level dose may be taking a toll.

After years of being weakened by the nosema fungus, the varroa mite, and other viruses, the film argues, the honey bees can no longer cope with the additional strain of neonicotinoid exposure.

Langworthy and Henein are not the first to blame these particular pesticides, along with one of their primary manufacturers, Bayer. More than two years ago, both researchers and commercial beekeepers expressed similar concerns.

But then as now, the pharmaceutical giant defended its product.
"Everybody knows this is about the varroa mite, the nosema pest and a number of fungal and viral diseases," a Bayer spokesman told The Independent. "The healthiest bees in the world are in Australia, where they have lots of neonicotinoids but they don't have varroa."

The British Beekeepers' Association was unwilling to assign definitive blame to the pesticides. "All the data we have seen so far is inconclusive," the group's president told the paper.