Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–October 8, 2013. Stress brought about by chronic exposure to sublethal levels of neonicotinoid pesticides causes bee colony failure, according to a new study published in the journal Ecology Letters. Scientists at Royal Holloway University of London have determined that low-level exposure to the pesticide imidacloprid at levels bees encounter in the field causes subtle impacts on individual bees that eventually cause colonies to collapse. This breakthrough study underlines repeated U.S. beekeeper and environmental group calls for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to suspend the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, as the European Commission recently decided this past April.
