Comments

  2. voyager says

    Nightjar, you take the most amazing photos. I’m so glad you’re sharing them.

    Giliell, that is fabulous news. Canada is still ‘investigating’ the issue and dragging its feet. In my province of Ontario neonicotinoid use is down 80% because of new regulations, but we need a national policy.

  3. Nightjar says

    Giliell, that is indeed great news and it was about time! The science on neonicotinoid toxicity to bees and beehives is nothing new, I remember doing an assignment on that very topic many years ago for a Toxicology course, as an undergraduate student. I’m really glad to see something is finally being done about it.

    Voyager, thank you! Fava bean fields free of pesticides are one of my favourite places to look for bugs, there is always such variety and a lot of activity going on.

  4. jazzlet says

    My favourite aphid muncher. I love the baby ones too, such weird looking colourful beasts.

  5. rq says

    Oh, breathtaking indeed! The ladybug pops so perfectly on the pale delicacy of fava bean. Wow!

    Giliell
    That’s nice of the EU, unfortunately, it’s just another sign of rich countries imposing their will without taking into account that smaller countries have different needs and could not possibly blindly follow along just because someone says it’s a good idea. Or so I’ve been told. The bees? What bees? There’s lots of bees! [/sarcasm]
    (By which I mean to say, certain countries remaining unnamed have chosen not to support the ban for whatever stupid reason. In my opinion, it’s past time it happened.)

  6. Ice Swimmer says

    A very shiny ladybug.

    rq @ 5

    Here in Finland, neonics have been considered essential for rypsi*/canola (the yellow-flowered brassica used for oil and protein fodder) growing. However bees are also necessary for growing oilseeds. I take it that some Baltic countries have the same contradictory position.

    __
    * = Finnish for turnip r*pe, no wonder they call it Canola commercially.

  7. Nightjar says

    Thanks, rq and Ice Swimmer.

    I suppose neonicotinoids may increase the yield of certain crops, but if we keep on doing nothing while pollinators disappear, well, then I guess we will know what low yields are truly like. And no, I don’t think robot bees can save us.

  8. says

    Ice Swimmer
    I guess that’s Raps in German.
    As for bees, a study done a year or so ago showed that Berlin has more and healthier bees than the big no people lots of agriculture Brandenburg.
    Guess what, people in cities love flowers and they also don’t want to poison their balconies. But of course the bees happily flying from balcony to balcony don’t do much for food production.
    Another problem apart from the insecticides is that especially where there’s lots of rapeseed, there’s nothing left for bees after the rapeseed flower is over.

  9. Ice Swimmer says

    Giliell @ 8

    Almost. They are closely related, rypsi (Ölrübsen) is a variant of turnip and rapsi (Raps) is a variant of rutabaga. AFAIK, rypsi grows better here that rapsi.

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