Procedure For Bee Kill Damage Report From jjbmail@selway.umt.edu Thu Oct 16 08:05:06 1997 Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 11:46:05 -0400 From: Jerry J Bromenshenk Subject: Re: Pesticide Bee Damage reported >Hmmmm.... Might work if there is enough media coverage. Here is another >gun >for the battle: > >The label directions for malathion prohibit application while bees are >foraging. The applicator is legally required to obey the label directions. >Application of malathion during the daytime hours without a monitoring >system >to determine when bees are foraging is in violation. A wilful violation is >a >criminal act. > >The applicators know what the label says, and they refuse to check when >bees >forage. They would rather evade the directions by notifying beekeepers. > >Get a camcorder and record the applications in progress. Then show bees >foraging at the same time. > Having been involved as a witness in some large bee kills, you should have a third party (who does not work for you or is not related to you) do the filming or any sampling. Because the beekeeper has a vested interest in the matter, any sampling, etc. done by the beekeeper will be called into question. The lawyers for the applicators will argue that the beekeeper purposely adultered samples used for residue analysis or "doctored" the time of filming, etc. Some very strong pesticide kill cases have been lost because the beekeeper handled the samples (remember all of the "chain of custody" issues from the Simpson case?). This is a tough one. In Montana, our large beekeepers may go 2-3 weeks before visiting a yard. Walking into a yard with a severe kill and piles of bees in front of the hives is a sad experience. More than one beekeeper has rushed back to the truck to get a bag or bottle to collect some samples (which the court throws out). Better to step back, go to a phone, and get someone else (preferably a bee inspector) to come, look over the situation, and take photographs and samples for residue analysis. And by the way, insist that any samples taken for residue analysis are kept separate by hive (I suggest that the inspector rank each sampled hive by degree of kill and write it down in a log - be sure to give the hive an identification number), store the samples in clean glass bottles or foil bags (never plastic), and freeze the samples immediately. Taking dry ice to the site is the best approach. Otherwise, hard freeze the samples as soon as possible. Also, the person who collected the samples should keep a log book and send a tracking (custody) form with the samples. Each time one person hands the samples to another (say collector to the postman, postman to analytical chemist, etc.) the form is to be signed by the person receiving the sample (and preferably by the person handing off the sample). The tracking form should be kept so that it can be produced in court. The other benefit to having a bee inspector out is that she or he can inspect the hives and rule out mites, disease, poor management as likely causes of the kill. Piles of dead bees and planes flying overhead just before the kill may seem obvious, but the lawyers will and have argued that the cause was poor management or disease. And finally, if your area requires you to register the exact locations of your apiaries, do put your bees on the proper sites. We had one MT beekeeper who lost lots of bees from industrial chemicals, but couldn't sue the company because his bees were not on the legally registered locations. In other words, he broke the law first. Jerry J. Bromenshenk, Ph.D. Director, DOE/EPSCoR & Montana Organization for Research in Energy The University of Montana-Missoula Missoula, MT 59812-1002 E-Mail: jjbmail@selway.umt.edu Tel: 406-243-5648 Fax: 406-243-4184