Weíre going to be talking about two different
sides of an issue; Hannahís going to be talking
about a new invasive insect and possibly some
ways people are looking at killing it. And
Iím going to talk about the other end of
the spectrum. Iím going to talk about how
not to kill insects. They may seem a little
odd but maybe I should introduce myself. My
name is Paul Krosak and Iím the Provincial
Apiarist with OMAFRA. So in a nutshell Iím
the honeybee guy for Ontario at the provincial
level. Iím going to be talking about today
the prevention of poisoning honey bees with
pesticides and when I talk about pesticides,
Iím really talking most specifically about
insecticides. Those are the ones that have
most damage on honey bee colonies. Now just
to point out right from the very start, honey
bees are essential for agricultural services
in Ontario. They contribute somewhere from
140 to 137 million dollars annually. Most
of this is through pollination value although
you do get about 14 million in honey production
as well. But really, the pollination is really
the big thing; a lot of growers really do
depend on this, depending on what youíre
growing. At the same time, youíve got insecticides
that are being used. And I will be frank about
it, a lot of growers do need to control their
pests in their cropping systems. Youíve got
these pests reaching economically damaging
levels and it is important to control them.
But I think thereís a lot you can do to control
both. You can prevent honey bee poisoning
and you can mitigate the damage to them well
still achieving good pest control. Iím not
going to focus on the pest control but really
what you can do to prevent that, so best management
practices. This is just going to be the basics,
what we know so far, the general practices,
some are mandatory, some are voluntary. But
just a lot of ones that you can do right in
the field. Letís take a look at what a honey
bee colony is first. This box here doesnít
have honey bees in it right now but this represents
what a honey bee colony would look like in
the field. You may have it at the edge of
a field for honey production or for nectar
or sorry for pollination. But thatís what
youíre seeing, a big box like that. These
arenít live honey bees, but this kind of
represents what it would look like, youíve
got one queen bee in a colony. Sheís producing
anywhere from about a thousand to a thousand
and a half eggs a day. And her job is to provide
colony cohesion and provide a large working
force to take advantage of that nectar and
pollen out in the environment. So a box like
that would have somewhere around the order
of 20,000 to 60,000 worker bees in it. Worker
bees do make up the vast majority of the population.
And this all depends on that 20,000 to 60,000,
time of year, state of the colony and state
of the queen. The foragers are the worker
bees that leave the colony. These are the
ones that may come in contact with insecticide
in the field. Theyíre going to be leaving
the entrance of the colony, flying out and
depending on where the resources are and how
good the resources are in the surrounding
environment, they may be going anywhere from
a few meters to as far as 6 miles, if thereís
really not a lot for them to forage. Typically
though, youíre looking at something like
this, you see this in the field, imagine a
2 mile radius around that and thatís where
the honey bees are going to be. So where you
see pesticide damage and again mostly insecticide
damage and acute insecticide damage, youíre
going to see a big pile of dead bees when
that happens. Whatís happening with that
is the bees are collecting an insecticide
thatís been applied to a crop or some other
flowering plant. They bring that back and
theyíre going to get poisoned. Youíre going
to see a big pile of bees right in front of
the colony. That really only represents about
10 percent of the bees that have been damaged.
The other 90 percent have died out there in
the field. So youíll see a marked decline
in the population of the honey bee colony
and really bad for the health of the colony.
Some may make it back into the colony and
unload some of the contaminated pollen. If
they do that, itís even worse because, it
starts to affect the bees inside the colony
and depending on how itís been stored, it
can prolong the damage up to a few months
or a year. So thatís the bad stuff, but the
good news is, that there are you know, a lot
of general practices that you can use to prevent
honey bee poisoning. Step number one would
be to not apply when a crop is in full bloom
or flowering. Some labels may prevent this
so again the label is the law and you do have
to refer to the label. If you have any questions
about the label, you can talk to the MOE or
PMRA and be pro-active about it but by no
means do you want to use it off label because
you can get into an issue with them or a conflict
with the beekeeper. Now to be frank, in some
instances if you can use the pesticide during
a bloom and the label allows for it and the
pest levels dictate that you have to treat,
you still have some options. Time of day is
also important, so the bees are foraging during
daylight hours and really the best thing you
can do beyond not applying during a flowering
period is applying after 8 pm. So when youíre
applying at night time, the bees are inside
the colony, theyíre not going to be foraging
and youíre not going to be exposing them
to that pesticide. Now you do get some residual
effects, so that is an issue as well. But
theyíre not going to be exposed to the initial
application and that can go a long way in
protecting them. Early morning is also good
but itís second best and itís really are
far second best to applying at night. The
reason for that is that although the bees
arenít active in early morning and again
it depends on the weather and the strength
of the company, you still have that residual
period. So again, the best thing you can do
is to treat at night, the second best is to
treat in the morning and the absolute worst
would be in broad daylight. In addition to
that, you know, youíve got a lot of options
for pesticides that are available. Thereís
a notion out there that all pesticides are
as bad as others, thatís simply not true.
There are a lot that actually have a minimal
impact on honey bees. And we have this list
available on the OMAFRA website under Apiculture
and Horticulture and thatís OMAFRA Apiculture,
Horticulture. Theyíre grouped into three
main classifications and group one which is
highly toxic, group two is moderately toxic
and group three which, says on the poster
here moderately toxic but should be least
toxic. So youíve got these three categories,
you do have a lot of options there. Again
this will depend on your crop, the pest youíre
trying to control and the levels of pest.
So again, youíve got a lot of options, take
a look at those. If you do have to be in category
2 or 1, you know youíve got the option of
not spraying during a flower period, but if
you have to, spraying at night. In addition
to the classifications, weíve also got formulations.
So certain formulations are more hazardous
to bees than others. Dusts are amongst the
worst. Something thatís you know, a solution
or a soluble powder is going to be a lot less
hazardous to honey bees. So youíve got also
that option right there. And application method,
we donít have that covered right now, thatís
something that will have an impact, aerial
is typically worse than ground spraying. And
in addition to that youíve also got the issue
of drift, I wonít go into the details of
drift, youíve got a lot of other stations
here that can tell you how to avoid drift.
For proper pest control and proper distribution
of your insecticide but drift is also a bad
thing for honey bees. When you get drift,
you can get it going into areas that you didnít
intend, you can get it going onto flowering
weeds which can also be a problem for honey
bees. Theyíre attracted to those flowers;
theyíre an important source of nectar and
pollen. As one more point for contact of the
insecticide and honey bee. So minimizing drift
is important, for that reason as well . And
depending on your weed control, you may already
be controlling your weeds and if you havenít
already just simply cutting or getting rid
of those weeds is one more way. Overall, you
know, thereís the mandatory , so the legislation
prevents growers from applying during a fruit
tree bloom. Other crops are not covered under
the Bees Act which is provincial legislation
but then you refer to the label. So again,
the label is the law and you do have the PMRA,
MOE following up on those issues. Any time
you can avoid any conflict, you really want
to go that route especially when you do have
these best practices. And again, depending
on your crop, your situation with the weather
and the pest levels, I mean youíre going
to have to work out the details of that too
but as far as best practices, this is kind
of the general, basics right now. One important
tool that beekeepers and growers and applicators
all should be using is communication. Thatís
something that really doesnít get used enough
but your landowner is kind of your contact
point. They can tell you whose spraying when
and if they donít know they can put you in
contact with who does know. In addition to
that if you have any questions contact myself
at the Apiculture program, OMAFRA apiculture
program and I can answer and questions that
way. Thatís really the basics of prevention
and again I think there is more to do with
getting detailed information on application
and working more closely with grower groups
as well.
