Oregon State University plans to help farmers by providing them with a smartphone app with everything they need to know about protecting bees while in the field. The app provides toxicity ratings for 150 farm chemicals from Abamectin to Ziram, how-tos on avoiding poisoning and symptoms of bee poisoning.
“We looked at the crops grown in the Northwest,” said OSU toxicologist Louisa Hooven, “and then at all the products that are likely to be used when the crop is flowering — which is when the bees will be foraging. Those were the pesticides we included.”
It’s critical information because Oregon beekeepers manage about 70,000 commercial honey bee hives, entomologist Ramesh Sagili said in a prepared statement.
The bees pollinate about 50 Oregon crops, including blueberries, cherries, pears, apples, clover, meadowfoam and vegetable seed worth a half billion dollars annually, he said.
The app is meant to help farmers protect honey bees, but also native ground-dwelling species such as squash bees, long-horned bees, sweat bees, mining bees and bumblebees.
