Hazardous Working Zone

摘要

Honey bee exposure to chemical pesticides has long been a concern of beekeepers and growers alike. A large portion of the country's 2.4 million colonies are utilized for crop pollination and are typically employed to pollinate several different cropsa season. These colonies are potentially at risk of exposure to the pesticides used by growers to control pest insects. Likewise the need to use chemical pesticides within the hive to control varroa mites has long been a concern in terms of the potentialimpacts on developing bees, especially queens, and the possible contamination of hive products. In the past, our experience with pesticides has been associated with lethal exposure and the obvious symptom of a pile of dead bees on the ground in front ofthe hive. But we are increasingly concerned about how pesticides,may affect bees at sub-lethal levels, not killing them outright but impairing their behaviour or their ability to fight off pathogen infections. For example, pesticides at sub-lethal levels have been shown to impair the learning abilities of honey bees. For these reasons, pesticide exposure is one of the potential factors contributing to honey bee decline under investigation.