EU scientists warn neonics impact goes beyond bees

摘要

There is an “increasing body of evidence” that the widespread prophylactic use of neonicotinoid insecticides has “severe effects” on a range of beneficial insects, not just honey bees, concludes a report by the European Science Academies (EASAC). “A focus on honey bees has distorted the debate around neonicotinoids,” the EASAC says. Studying honey bee colony numbers does not show what is happening to other pollinators and insects that provide natural pest control, it adds. The EASAC is a network of the national science academies of the EU member states, Norway and Switzerland. Following the European Commission’s suspension of certain uses of neonicotinoid seed treatments in 2013, the EASAC assembled 13 experts to review the science, including over 100 papers published in the last two years. The suspension was in response to concerns over the decline in honey bee numbers, but the EASAC says that there has also been a general drop in Europe of bumble bees, solitary bees, hoverflies, butterflies and moths.