1080 AND BEES

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30316, 17 December 1963, Page 22

1080 AND BEES

Results Of Study

Sweetened baits of the poison 1080, used for the destruction of noxious animals, have not caused mass deaths of bees and the minute amounts of the poison which might get into honey could not harm people who eat it These are conclusions from Investigations made by the Department of Agriculture's Wallaceville animal research station. The investigators’ report says that bees are attracted to jam baits containing 1080 and colonies would be severely affected if it were collected. However, these baits can be laid only by, or under the supervision of, approved operators. They are instructed not to lay baits within a quarter of a mile of apiaries. In experiments in which bees were encouraged to visit 1080 jam baits and store the poison in their hives large numbers of bees died, but only traces of the poison could be found in the uncapped honey. Such minute amounts could be eaten indefinitely without causing any ill effect, because the poison does not accumulate in the human body. The experimental conditions were highly artificial, as everything possible was done to favour the storage of the poison in honey. It is most improbable that commercial honey would ever contain even the traces found in these experiments.