Beekeepers eye insecticide as cause of mystery losses

Large-scale deaths of bees - allegedly due to a relatively new insecticide treatment - have triggered an effective beekeepers' boycott on pollinating an important export crop.

Commercial beekeepers providing hives for pollination are keeping their bees out of the fertile Poverty Bay "flats", one of the key areas for growing squash for export to Japan.

Gisborne apiarist and honey processor Barry Foster said the beekeepers were concerned that an insecticide, imidacloprid, used on squash and maize seed, had caused the loss of around 200 beehives.

"The big problem is not so much the treatment of squash seed with imidacloprid ... we can always walk away from it to other crops like manuka and that is what some beekeepers are doing," said Mr Foster.

But he said that beekeepers were worried there would be massive harm done if there was widespread treatment of clover seed with imidacloprid, as bees often fed on clover flowers.

In the Northern Hemisphere, it was suspected, but not proven that seed treatment with imidacloprid had caused devastation among bee populations, said Mr Foster.

- NZPA