Bees knees

Published on 26/10/2012 00:00

Claims that bumblebee colonies are impaired by pesticide use (your report, 22 October) are based on a study which strongly encouraged them to feed on a sucrose solution containing an insecticide for four weeks by deliberately placing it in their nest. The bumblebees were also forced into contact with a potentially lethal, but unrealistic, dose of another insecticide before leaving the lab to forage. Bees would never be exposed to the insecticides used in these studies in this unrealistic way in the field.

The study is also at odds with the fact that the introduction of pollinator strips, which provide habitat and nutrition for bees, have helped produce a dramatic recovery in bee populations reversing the decline of some bumblebee species like the Bombus ruderatus, which was close to extinction.

These strips sit alongside fields where safe modern pesticides are used.

Your article referred to other studies, which, you argue, point to the role played by pesticides in the declines in bee health.

However, you fail to mention other studies produced by leading universities, such as Exeter, and European governments, including the UK and Switzerland, which dispute this argument.

The article also fails to mention the wide body of evidence published this year which points to the destructive role that disease and viruses, such as varroa, play in the decline in bee health.

Syngenta is absolutely committed to sustainable agriculture and to improvements in bee health, which is why we have worked with our partners to develop and roll out Operation Pollinator (www.operationpollinator.com) across Europe over the past ten years.

This programme is restoring the vital habitat and nutrition on which bees depend.

Phil Botham

Syngenta

Bracknell, Berkshire