Italy has been a busy bee trying to save the bees on their land. News is that the government has banned several pesticides that are believed to have caused the deaths of millions of honeybees. Neonicotinoid pesticides like clothianidin and imidacloprid are used in sunflowers and sweet corn but not anymore. These chemicals attack the nervous system of insects and can also get to the pollen and nectar, thereby damaging beneficial insects like bees.
Italy is not the only nation to be taking such stringent steps. Germany and Slovenia had introduced a similar ban early this year while France had done its bit way back in 1999. Clothianidin and imidacloprid are produced by the famous German company Bayer CropScience that has made profits to the range of 800 million in 2007. And now the German Coalition are after Bayer to stop marketing harmful pesticides after thousands of hives were lost due to poisoning.
Via enn