South Carolina sprays for Zika, further decimates honeybee population

Monday, September 5, 2016
By Paul Martin

by: Vicki Batts
NaturalNews.com
Sunday, September 04, 2016

Honeybee deaths have spread across Dorchester County, South Carolina, with millions of worker bees collapsing in little groups by their hives’ entrances. However, this pattern of death does not suggest colony collapse disorder; most of the bees were trying to get to their hives, probably for safety. Rather, the evidence indicates that these poor little bees were the victims of acute pesticide poisoning.

This heartbreaking news is not terribly surprising; the tidal wave of bee deaths follows a local government decision to spray a number of areas across the country with Naled, a type of pesticide that’s being used in the name of Zika prevention. On Sunday, August 28, Dorchester County sprayed the hazardous insecticide across the region.

Flowertown Bee Farm and Supply, an apiary located in Summerville, has reported that 46 of their hives died on the day of the spraying; that equates to about 2.5 million bees. A scientist from Clemson University collected soil samples from Flowertown to investigate the cause of the bee deaths, but to bee farmers the reason is already quite clear: The bees were poisoned and killed by pesticides. Naled, their poison of choice, is known to be very toxic to bees, as well as mosquitoes.

Even though no one in the country has been infected by a locally-acquired Zika infection, officials have taken it upon themselves to go ahead and spray the area anyway. Normally, the country utilizes trucks to promote ground-based mosquito control efforts. For whatever reason, on Sunday they decided to try something new and sprayed across their skies for the first time. The county says it posted plenty of warnings about the pesticide mist set to rain down on citizens. They put out one notice in the newspapers on the Friday before, and one Facebook post on Saturday. Unfortunately, it appears that bees can’t read and didn’t know they were supposed to stay home that morning.

Local beekeepers do not feel that they were given any advance notice about the spraying. Honestly, if you use social media at all, you know that you don’t always see every single story an organization posts in your news feed, and not everyone buys a newspaper seven days a week.

The Rest…HERE

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