A new study indicates that the drop in bee populations may be a result of friendly fire--a purportedly safe insecticide used to treat plants that is actually harmful to bees.
Friends of the Earth, an environmental group, unveiled a new study on Wednesday that found that some so-called "bee-friendly" insecticides contain neonicotinoids, a chemical that some have said is responsible for the bee's population decline, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"Our data indicate that many plants sold in nurseries and garden stores across the U.S. and Canada are being pre-treated with systemic neonicotinoid insecticides, making them potentially toxic to pollinators," Timothy Brown, an associate scientist at the Pesticide Research Institute and co-author of the report, said in a statement quoted by the L.A. Times.
According to the study, 36 out of 71 plant samples had neonicotinoids, indicating that supposedly harmless pesticides are hurting honeybees.
The chemical has been connected to Colony Collapse Disorder, which is when bees abandon their hives. The environmental group's study comes the week after the Obama administration announced a task force to conserve the honeybee population.
According to White House spokesman Josh Earnest, protecting honeybees and other pollinators has "a clear economic incentive" since the crops they help to produce "have an impact of about $24 billion a year on the United States economy."
Insecticide manufacturers deny that neonicotinoids are connected with bee deaths.
"There have been more than 100 studies investigating these products and pollinators showing that under conditions of practical field use, neonicotinoids are not harmful to bee colonies," said David Fischer, a scientist with Bayer CropScience, as quoted by the L.A. Times.
American beekeepers began noticing abandoned hives in 2006, which is when honeybee colony loss rates began increasing by about 30 percent each winter, higher than the usual 10 to 15 percent, according to the White House.
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