Pesticide-carrying bumblebees cause some concern

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Bee Vectoring Technology (BVT), based in Vancouver, is offering a new way to deliver pesticides – with bumblebees.

According to Gizmag, the technology works by placing a tray of powder, containing a mixture of natural pesticides and beneficial fungi, into the lid of a regular commercial beehive. As the bees leave the hive, they pick up the powder, carrying it with them to every flower they pollinate.

David Passafiume, an organic farmer near Toronto, told New Scientist that he has been using BVT pesticides on his 8.5 acres of strawberries and raspberries for five years. "We were losing a significant portion of our crop each year to Botrytis and tarnished plant bugs," he said, adding that losses now are negligible and profits have gone up by a quarter. Not everyone is pleased at the thought of pesticide-carrying bees. Jeremy Kerr, a University of Ottawa biologist, told New Scientist that he thinks this technology should only be used inside greenhouses to reduce the chances of unintended effects on non-target plants or other pollinators. As well, Prof. Sydney Cameron of the University of Illinois worries that BVT's use of commercially-raised bees poses a risk toward wild bee populations. "Domesticated bumblebees carry pathogens that can be transmitted into the wild," she told New Scientist. "That issue has not been resolved."

According to a press release, BVT opened its first production plant in Mississauga last October, where it can produce up to $100 million dollars-worth of products annually. BF