The Good News on National Honey Bee Day
August 13, 2014
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. (Aug. 14, 2014) – Saturday is National Honey Bee Day and the Bayer Bee Care Program is celebrating the recent good news about honey bees which suggests bees are rebounding when compared to previous years. Honey bees have a tremendous impact in our lives, backyards and communities, including pollinating many of the fruits and vegetables we love to eat. Without them, feeding our families and growing beautiful gardens would be a bigger challenge.
On this National Honey Bee Day, there is good news on bee health:
- Honey bee populations are stable or increasing globally;
- After a long winter, hives on two continents were stronger than in previous years;
- The President started an initiative to find ways to improve honey bee health; and
- New public/private partnerships are addressing forage and nutrition challenges.
Even with this good news, there remains much work to do as bee experts agree that honey bee health is affected by many stressors. From a lack of food and heavy workload while being trucked from coast to coast pollinating crops to diseases and deadly pests, honey bees are constantly facing obstacles. There’s even the deadly Varroa mite, which has been called “the single most detrimental pest of honey bees” because it sucks their blood just like a giant tick and can ultimately destroy an entire colony. Honey bees are vital to our agriculture and urban landscapes, and it is important that they stay strong.
Bayer knows honey bees are important and is working to keep them healthy. In April, our North American Bee Care Center opened in Research Triangle Park, N.C. The Company also launched an innovative, new product named Fluency Agent that was used to help reduce potential pesticide dust exposure to honey bees during the planting season on more than 3 million acres in North America. Bayer shared the good news about bees during our 2nd Bee Care Tour, which traveled coast-to-coast ending in Washington, D.C. during National Pollinator Week, and Bayer educated thousands about honey bee health in the middle of Grand Central Station in July.
Bayer continues to promote proper use of all its products, including neonicotinoid insecticides. Neonicotinoids have helped revolutionize plant and pet protection because of how well they work against destructive pests.
Without these modern products, we would be unable to manage the serious pests that:
- threaten our food supply (e.g., citrus psyllid),
- devastate our landscapes (e.g., emerald ash borer), and
- harm our pets and families (e.g., fire ants, fleas and ticks).
The fact that neonicotinoids can help control destructive pests while protecting our needed pollinators, such as honey bees, is what makes them so essential to pest management programs. There have been more than 100 studies investigating neonicotinoids and pollinators, and, under conditions of practical field use, these products are not harmful to bee colonies.
You can do your part too! Plant a bee-friendly garden to give honey bees food to eat and share the importance of honey bees with your neighbors and friends. Keeping bees healthy takes everyone working together to find solutions.
For additional information and background on other sustainability initiatives, please visit http://www.bayercropscience.us/our-commitment/bayer-initiatives.
Bayer CropScience Twitter Page:
http://twitter.com/bayer4cropsus
Bayer Bee Care Twitter Page:
http://twitter.com/bayerbeecare
Bayer CropScience Blog:
http://connect.bayercropscience.us
Bayer CropScience is committed to bringing new technology and solutions for agriculture and non-agricultural uses. For questions concerning the availability and use of products, contact a local Bayer CropScience representative, or visit Bayer CropScience online at www.bayercropscience.us.
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About Bayer CropScience
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care,
agriculture and high-tech materials. Bayer CropScience, the subgroup of Bayer AG responsible for the agricultural business, has annual sales of EUR 8,819 million (2013) and is one of the world’s leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of seeds, crop protection and non-agricultural pest control. The company offers an outstanding range of products including high value seeds, innovative crop protection solutions based on chemical and biological modes of action as well as an extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture. In the area of non-agricultural applications, Bayer CropScience has a broad portfolio of products and services to control pests from home and garden to forestry applications. The company has a global workforce of 22,400 and is represented in more than 120 countries. This and further news is available at: www.press.bayercropscience.com.
Contact:
Bayer CropScience Media Hotline, 1-877-879-6162, or
Beth Roden or
Head of Communications & Bayer CropScience NA Coordinator
Bayer CropScience
Tel: (919) 549-2030
Email: beth.roden@bayer.com
Catharine Montgomery
Porter Novelli
Tel: (404) 995-4521
Email: catharine.montgomery@porternovelli.com
Find more information at www.bayercropscience.us.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer Group or subgroup management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer’s public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.
