Talent is set to become the second Bee City USA in the country (Ashville NC is the other). Dolly Warden, a beekeeper and a member of the city’s Together for Talent Committee, began promoting the designation last fall. The Talent City Council is prepared to adopt the title in accord with national guidelines. One new Talent beekeeper however recently had an unexpected and sudden bee loss.
BEE CITY USA is a national group that encourages communities in raising awareness of the contributions of bees and other pollinators and fostering practices to help pollinators. Such measures include reduction or elimination of pesticides and establishment of areas friendly to bees. Cities seeking the BEE CITY designation additionally need to establish a pollinator subcommittee, install a Bee City USA street sign, post pollinator information on the city website, and participate in annual celebration of National Pollinator Week.
In late June, a new colony of bees was killed instantly by a bear in Talent. Owner Deborah Caron (yes my daughter) thought she heard something in the night and her new puppy was nervous. Shortly after she discovered her newly establish nuc colony (purchased just few days earlier from John Jacobs) scattered over the hillside. The bear got everything. She plans to start again.
Oregon’s other Bee City, Eugene, self-designated as America’s Most Bee-Friendly City, also had a mid-June bee loss, ironically during the week designated as Pollinator Week. In this instance, several hundred, likely over 1000, bumble bees and some honey bees were found dead beneath flowering linden trees. The trees had recently been sprayed with imidaclorprid insecticide. The Insecticide was sprayed on blooming linden trees in Jacob’s Lane apartment complex in northwest Eugene. Eugene City Council had earlier passed a resolution banning products that contain neonicotinoids on any city property, in parks or on school grounds.
Residents first reported that the sidewalks under the 17 sprayed trees were littered with dead and dying bees the day following the spraying. Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) and Sujaya Rao of Oregon State University, a bumble bee specialist, collected samples and initiated an investigation. The spray application was quickly determined to be in violation of new Oregon-specific wording on the label.
The Oregon Department of Agriculture within the week suspended the pesticide license of the tree care service, Glass Tree Care and Spray Service of Eugene. The tree care company covered the sprayed trees before the week was out to try to limit the loss of bumble and honey bees. They face a potential fine once the investigation is complete.
Other bumble bee losses were reported in Beaverton and Hillsboro in Washington Co. None were as extensive as the loss last spring in Wilsonville when over 50,000 bumble (and a few honey) bees were killed by spray application of the related neonicotinoid dinotefuran by a different applicator. Other honey bee losses in Clackamas (perhaps an unusual instance of late spring starvation, although pesticides have not been ruled out) and highway traffic (a swarm in Sherwood, incorrectly reported as perhaps due to pesticides) have also gotten press attention.