‘Tis the time of year for bugs to start bugging us. They may be creepy, or stingers, but most bugs and spiders serve a useful purpose in the environment. There are numerous devices now to help you trap and release wayward insects, indoors and out.

For those who are timid toward spiders and other creepy crawlies in the house, there are several ways to trap them and sent them go their buggy way.

You can find several variation on the “one bug at a time” catcher, such as the Katcha Bug Catcher, right, a small plastic dome placed over a wayward spider or other bug. Slowly close the trap-door, and take the bug outside. It’s $8 from the PETA Catalog, and it’s also available from other Web retailers.

The Spider Catcher, at left, is made in the UK, but you can easily order it from the U.S. It’s a simple idea — a long-handled device with straight, soft bristles at the end that open and then gently close around your eight-legged buddy long enough for you to carry it outside. (Although some might suggest that you leave spiders alone in your house – they eat other bugs). It’s $20. They say it’s gentle enough to pick up a butterfly and leave it unharmed, but we suspect those soft bristles might not be tough enough to grab  a jumbo cockroach.

Gaiam has the battery-free BugZooka, which extends up to 24” for you to suck in an errant bug and release it outside.  It’s $29.

Outdoors, combine cornering wasps with streamlined design using the organic wasp trap, $31.90, at right, created by industrial designer Pernille Vea of Denmark. The pretty trap uses sugar and vinegar, and its funnel-shaped entrance holds wasps inside until you’re ready to release them. (Try to keep the errant bees out, though. You need them in the yard to pollinate.)

If you’re so nature friendly you refuse to swat a mosquito, Gaiam has a pocket-sized Solar Mosquito Guard, at left, which emits a high-frequency wave that keeps mosquitoes at bay.

And if none of these smush-free bug devices suit your fancy, you might go with the tried and true clear plastic bag filled with water hanging from the rail or roof. You see them in the South and all over Mexico. Their effectiveness is a bit of a mystery, but many experts attribute their success to light refraction.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Our neighbors probably don’t love it, but we had another outbreak of wildflowers in our organic yard. These things happen when you don’t use chemicals.

I must confess, it was the promise of mutual benefit that prompted me to leave these natives to thrive. They got to bloom, and I got to sit in my room.

When finally I did roust myself to pull them, I noticed a hive of honey bees, dozens and dozens of bees, feeding on the tiny blooms. So naturally, I had to let them bloom some more. We’ll probably pay the price next year for letting these flowers go to seed (though we did pull many of them in the front yard to stifle gasps from passersby), but I like to think we supported a lot of pollinators that would not normally find much to dine on in the usual plain old turf of most yards.

The moral of the story: Let it bee.

(For more on pollinators see the website: The Pollinator Partnership. They are working to save all pollinators, from butterflies to bats, but especially the king of pollination, the bees. Honey bees have suffered a precipitous decline in recent years from the phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Syndrome. Pesticides, especially the new generation that act as neurotoxins on insects are suspected of playing a triggering role in CCD.)

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

In light of recent European bans of a pesticide linked to Bee Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), at least one key bee expert is calling for a ban of the same pesticide in the United States.

“In the United States, drastic action is needed,” says Canadian geneticist Joe Cummins, explaining that U.S. farmers and beekeepers shouldn’t have to wait for more evidence or for an air-tight explanation for the complex syndrome, which threatens one in every third bite of food in the United States. Now most apiarists and scientists realize that pesticides are a factor in CCD, he says.

Cummins’ remarks, in an interview with GreenRightNow, come less than a month after Germany’s ban of clothianidin, a pesticide commonly used to keep insects off of corn crops. Germany banned the pesticide after heaps of dead bees were found near fields of corn coated in the pesticide, and in response to scientists who report that the insecticide severely impairs, and often kills, the honeybees that corn and other crops depend on for pollination.

The German government took the extraordinary action to protect bees and other essential pollinators, stating that there is now enough compelling evidence connecting the chemical to Bee Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in that country.

The ban also will likely fuel the European debate over genetically modified food, which involves treating crop seeds to resist harm from pesticide treatments. Critics of such modified foods say they are harming the environment, and have unknown human consequences, for little or no crop gain. Some scientists in Europe have called for their ban.

Bee Colony Collapse has been threatening bees, and the crops they serve, around the world for the past several years.

In other parts of Europe, including France, studies of other pesticides have shown they are negatively impacting bee behavior – and contributing to the collapse of entire bee colonies. France has outlawed the use of the pesticide imidacloprid — which like clothianidin is classed as a “neonicotinoid.” Imidacloprid has been linked to disoriented behavior in honeybees – and may help explain why many CCD cases result in abandoned hives.

“I think the Environmental Protection Agency would be well advised to put an immediate emergency ban on the neonicotinoid seed-treatment pesticides. I would say on all pesticides,” says Cummins.

The ban in Germany, and Cummins’ call for a U.S. ban, should be no surprise to the EPA. The agency’s own fact sheet on clothianidin shows that it has known of the dangers to bees since it conditionally approved the chemical in 2003.

Haagen-Dazs says it “hearts” honeybees. To underscore this claim, the all-natural ice creamery is putting its money where its mouth is – donating $250,000 worth in cash to the cause and pouring much more into advertising and promotions designed to aid the humble worker.

As American apiarists monitor their hives this winter for signs of Colony Collapse Disorder and many others watch helplessly as the syndrome decimates their beeyards, the General Mills giant has made a move to help. On Monday (Feb. 18), it announced the launch of “Haagen-Dazs Loves Honey Bees,” a multi-prong campaign to fund research and increase public awareness of the mysterious syndrome that has gutted at least 25 percent of America’s prime pollinators over the past few years.

“We started working on this (campaign) last fall,” says Diane McIntyre, senior public relations manager for H-D. “We did some research and began to understand what the impact would be on our business, let alone how it could impact the rest of the country, if things continue as they are.”

The “HD Loves HBs” site, officially launched today. The project includes several major PR efforts and gifts:

• A $250,000 donation to Pennsylvania State University and the University of California, Davis, two American universities whose researchers are leading the charge in honeybee-health and genetic research.

• A raft of television ads set for March/April release, as well as print advertisements.

• The launch of a brand-new flavor: Vanilla Honey Bee.

• The creation of a “Bee Board,” an advisory panel with eight honeybee scholars and apiarists from around the country.

• The labeling of all “honeybee-dependent” flavors in Haagen-Dazs retail stores. The company says that more than 40 percent of its offerings are directly linked to honeybee pollination.

“Haagen-Dazs is kind of an icon in our industry, and what we really wanted to do is use the power of the brand to help spread the word,” McIntyre says, adding that “so far, we’re not aware of any other food companies that have jumped on the bandwagon. Burts’
Bees has a campaign. But as far as we’re concerned, the more people who want to join the effort, the better.”

McIntyre says the company is extremely concerned about the continuing die-offs, which began several years ago and largely remain a mystery. As reported in the story Bee Colony Collapse on this website last week, researchers are making strides and have identified a genetic marker linking a virus – the Israeli Accute Paralysis Virus – with CCD.
But much remains to be done, scientists contend.

By Shermakaye Bass

A year and a half ago, news of a mysterious phenomenon captured the country’s attention – something known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) that was affecting up to 30 percent of America’s commercial honeybee producers, whose mobile apiaries pollinate one-third of the country’s food supply.

For months, the international media carried reports on CCD (essentially a disappearing act by America’s worker honeybees), projecting repercussions that would drive produce and dairy prices through the roof and eventually cause large-scale food shortages in the U.S.

Then, as inexplicably as the syndrome’s arrival around 2004-2005, the media blitz died down. This winter, while commercial beekeepers prepare to send their hives cross-country for spring pollination, the CCD problem again looms large, if not larger, as some apiculturists see hints of a recurring nightmare. Others report having already lost huge chunks of their colonies.

“I think people thought we had it worked out, but we don’t,” says Pennsylvania State University’s Diana Cox-Foster, adding that a lack of federal funding has stymied critical research. She and others say that, indeed, if CCD isn’t resolved soon, American agriculture will feel a major sting, and so will consumers.

The good news is that over the past year, and particularly in the past couple of months, scientists have made important inroads. According to entomologist Cox-Foster, the newest findings from her and collaborators at Columbia University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Bee Research Laboratory show a solid link between U.S. versions of Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) DNA and hive decimation, strongly tying the virus to imported Australian honeybee packages. The team has long suspected a connection between IAPV and CCD.

Last month, they and others around the country shared data at the National Beekeeping Conference in Sacramento, the first ever gathering of the country’s two major bee associations. CCD researchers also discussed ongoing attempts to characterize and isolate different viruses that appear to play a role in CCD, while others continue to explore the impact of environmental degradation, chemical interlopers, as well as disease carried by Varroa mites and small-hive beetles.

Photo: Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium

Beekeepers report having already lost huge chunks of their colonies

Though far from having an answer, producers and scientists emerged from the meeting more convinced than ever that if Congress doesn’t quickly fund CCD research and a national honeybee-health survey – provisions that are in both versions of a Farm Bill currently on the table – the beekeepers, too, may become a dying breed.

Minnesota beekeeper David Ellingson, whose family farm celebrated its 60th anniversary last year, says that although his colonies are looking good so far this winter (last year he lost 65 percent), he’s desperate for action.

“You know, we need answers to this yesterday – and we need the funding now. Next year is too late,” the 54-year-old says. “There have been other farm bills in the past (with authorization for bee research funding), but it didn’t happen. Things like that make you wonder. With all the technology we have now in agriculture and science.… I just know I can’t survive another year like I had last year.”

Since the colony collapses were first reported in 2004, apiculturists have been lobbying lawmakers and federal agencies for funds (approximately $75 million in the current proposed legislation). Some are optimistic that this time help is on the way, while others like Scott Black Hoffman, of the Xerces Society in Oregon (which promotes biodiversity), suspect that this being an election year – “and with so many other things on people’s minds” – bee health will once again get tabled.