Marco Weissheimer
About 200 beehives, with an estimated population of 12 million bees, were decimated in the last days of 2018, in the progress line, located in the municipality of São José das Missões, Northern region of Rio Grande do Sul. Six beekeepers ‘ families had total loss in their hives, one of their main sources of income. According to the farmers affected, the cause of death was the misuse of a insecticide based on fipronil, in a soybean crop in the region. The application of this insecticide would have occurred at the end of December and the bees began to die on December 30th and 31st. The agronomist Mairo Piovesan, who works at Emater, in São José das Missões, received reports from at least six families affected by the death of bees in the last days. The video below was made in the property of Mr. Leo and Dona Angela Ballin on the progress line:
The farmers recorded what took place with photos and videos that show millions of dead bees around the beehives. According to Mairo Piovesan, the insecticide was used for the control of the soybean anteater. The use of this product, indicated, is authorized in the soybean crop, but was used in the same spraying tank with the herbicide glyphosate, applied for desiccation of soybean weeds, and end up reaching forage turnabon plants where the Bees. The use of insecticide and glyphosate in the same tank, to save on the application, is prohibited by the legislation, emphasized the agronomist engineer. According to him, by the information already obtained, the death of the bees was practically total within a radius of six kilometers of the application site.
“It is difficult to measure the value of the loss of these hives. Only two families lost more than 100 beehives that represented their main source of income, “Piovesan said. The damage is being calculated and will be joined to the investigation that the police organs are conducting. The Military Brigade environmental patrol has been in the area affected to carry out a survey and the affected families will be registered in the Civil police. To this day, for which the agronomist engineer has news, this problem has not yet happened on this scale in the region that has in soybean one of its main crops. The velocity of contamination of a beehive is very fast, he explained. A few contaminated bees suffice to contaminate the entire hive.
In 2012, Ibama suggested the reassessment of the use of four pesticides associated with the death of Bees: Imidacloprido, Thiametoxam, Clotianidina and Fipronil. Ibama’s decision at the time was based on scientific research and decisions taken by other countries, such as France, where Fipronil has been banned since 2004. In 2013, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) delivered an unfavorable opinion on the continuation of the use of insecticides based on Fipronil.
In Rio Grande do Sul, the death of bees has worsening in recent years. In 2017, according to the sector Chamber of beekeeping of the State Secretariat of Agriculture, about 3000 beehives were decimated in the state. In most cases, the deaths occurred due to contamination of the bees with pesticides.
Editorial: General, Z_Areazero
Keywords: bees, agrochemicals, fipronil, death of Bees, Saint Joseph of missions
Source: www.sul21.com.br
