Bee-pocalypse: Lessons from Zika spraying
'My bees were poisoned from the sky,' beekeeper says
by Sandee LaMotte CNN
POSTED: 04:53 PM CDT Sep 02, 2016 UPDATED: 05:41 PM CDT Sep 02, 2016
Rich Brooks/CNN
(CNN) -
South Carolina beekeeper Juanita Stanley has a message to mosquito control officials who she believes are overreacting to Zika: "Stop. This is crazy. It's like using a sledgehammer to crack a peanut. The devastation that it has already caused is beyond comprehension. We can't live without these honeybees."
Last weekend, Stanley lost more than 3 million bees -- all 46 of her hives and her entire livelihood -- when Summerville officials decided to aerially spray a small area of the town for Zika-carrying mosquitoes.
Usually, officials spray for mosquito control by truck and at night, when bees are in their hives and beekeepers can better protect them. But this time, the county decided to spray aerially, just after sunrise on Sunday.
"There are 'no spraying' signs all over my property," Stanley said. "But my bees were poisoned from the sky."
The spraying occurred, Dorchester County Administrator Jason Ward said, because four people in the county had developed Zika while traveling to areas of the world where the virus is actively circulating. Summerville residents then expressed concern about the virus.
But Zika is not actively circulating in South Carolina. All but one of the 46 cases in the state are imported, travel-associated cases. The lone exception was transmitted sexually.
In fact, the only state with active mosquito transmission is Florida, and only in the Miami and St. Petersberg/Tampa areas.
So if no local mosquitoes in Summerville are carrying the Zika virus, why was it necessary to spray?
For one, Aedes aegypti, the main mosquito that carries and transmits the virus, has been found in small numbers in the nearby Charleston area, says Ward. And even though the only news release from South Carolina's Department of Health and Environmental Control in April says, "There is no risk to public health and no risk of transmission to people or mosquitoes in South Carolina at this time," Ward says the county's first responsibility is to its residents.
"We had historic rainfall, including a flood last October, where we've had standing water in areas where we have never had standing water," he explained. "Our winter this year was very mild, and we didn't have that real hard freeze. So the health of our citizens is of primary concern."
Stanley said that rationale doesn't make sense.
"Someone has a virus that they didn't get here, but what if, someday, maybe, they might?" she asked, her voice rising in outrage. "Let's just go kill everything in case someone might get it? Where is the logic in that?"
What is the official stance? The National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the National Bee Laboratory said they would not be commenting on the issue. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was more forthcoming.
"We do recommend mosquito control to be done around travel-associated cases as well as locally transmitted cases if the mosquitoes that spread Zika are in the environment," said entomologist Janet McAllister of the CDC's Division of Vector-Borne Diseases. "We don't want the virus to take hold in the local mosquito population."
Although Aedes aegypti is the most effective at transmitting the Zika virus, another more common mosquito in the United States is also capable of spreading the disease. It's called Aedes albopictus, and it's widespread in South Carolina.
"Our recommendations take into account both species," McAllister said, "just in case the disease starts to spread."
Mosquito control and bees
The nation's bees have long been stressed by the public's need for pest control.
"I've seen it with West Nile virus and after hurricanes and major flooding," entomologist Jeffrey Harris said. "I always tell the beekeepers that human health is always going to trump bee health, and if there is a natural disaster that increases a dangerous mosquito population, they are going to spray."
Harris runs the Honey Bee Extension and Research Program for Mississippi State University and is active in research on bees and how to best protect them from pesticides.
"Aerial spraying is a tough one," he said. "The recommendations are difficult to follow. While maximum foraging for bees is between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., in the summertime, the bees are already out at dawn, when aerial spraying is recommended. So spraying in the morning is the worst thing they can do for bees."
Why not spray at night?
"That's not always possible," said Michael Doyle, who has run the Key West Mosquito Control District for five years. "Some districts can fly at night safely, but, for example, we cannot in Key West. We have to fly over water, and there isn't any light to guide the plane."
Doyle added that because the naled pesticide droplets are very small, there is really no way to avoid unprotected hives. The CDC's McAllister agrees.
"The mosquito control pesticides are targeted for tiny creatures," McAllister said. "They are very small droplets, about 15 to 25 microns in size, much less than the diameter of the human hair."
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Zika spraying kills millions of honeybees
Beekeeper has to destroy hives
by Sandee LaMotte CNN
POSTED: 05:29 PM CDT Sep 01, 2016 UPDATED: 05:57 PM CDT Sep 01, 2016
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
(CNN) -
The pictures are heartbreaking: Millions of honeybees lie dead after being sprayed with an insecticide targeting Zika-carrying mosquitoes.
"On Saturday, it was total energy, millions of bees foraging, pollinating, making honey for winter," beekeeper Juanita Stanley said. "Today, it stinks of death. Maggots and other insects are feeding on the honey and the baby bees who are still in the hives. It's heartbreaking."
Stanley, co-owner of Flowertown Bee Farm and Supply in Summerville, South Carolina, said she lost 46 beehives -- more than 3 million bees -- in mere minutes after the spraying began Sunday morning.
"Those that didn't die immediately were poisoned trying to drag out the dead," Stanley said. "Now, I'm going to have to destroy my hives, the honey, all my equipment. It's all contaminated."
Stanley said Summerville Fire Capt. Andrew Macke, who keeps bees as a hobby, also lost thousands of bees. She said neither of them had protected their hives because they didn't know about the aerial spraying.
"Andrew has two hives," Stanley said. "He didn't know they were going to spray. His wife called him. His bees are at their porch right by their home, and she saw dead bees everywhere."
It's a tragedy that could be repeated across the country as cases of Zika continue to rise and local mosquito control districts struggle to protect their residents and ease local fears.
The spray fell from the skies between 6:30 and 8:30 a.m. Sunday. It was the first aerial spraying in 14 years, according to Dorchester County Administrator Jason Ward, part of the county's efforts to combat Zika after four local residents were diagnosed with the virus.
"We chose Sunday morning because few people would be out and about that early on a weekend," Ward said. "To protect the bees, you don't want to spray after the sun has been up more two hours, so we scheduled it early."
The county used a product called Trumpet, which contains the pesticide naled, recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for control of adult Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that transmits Zika.
According to the manufacturer's label (PDF), Trumpet is "highly toxic to bees exposed to direct treatment on blooming crops or weeds. To minimize hazard to bees, it is recommended that the product is not applied more than two hours after sunrise or two hours before sunset, limiting application to times when bees are least active."
"We followed that recommendation," said Ward, "which is also the policy laid out by the state, using a pesticide the state has approved for use."
Ward says the county also notified residents of the spraying by posting a notice on its website at 9 a.m. Friday, two days before the spraying. He added that it alerted beekeepers who were on the local mosquito control registry by phone or email, a common practice before truck spraying.
"That's true when they sprayed by trucks; they told me in advance, and we talked about it so I could protect my bees," Stanley said. "But nobody called me about the aerial spraying; nobody told me at all."
Stanley said she "would have been screaming and pleading on their doorstep if they had."
" 'Do it at night when bees are done foraging,' I would have told them," she added, breaking into tears. "But they sprayed at 8 a.m. Sunday, and all of my bees were out, doing their work by then."
Macke was also not informed, Ward said, because he, like many hobby beekeepers, is not on the local mosquito control registry.
"We are obviously saddened by the fact people have lost their hives, and we have gone back and looked at our procedures," Ward said. "We will now give up to five days of advance notice, and we have expanded our list to include more local beekeepers."
Stanley says she doesn't think there was malice involved, but that doesn't make the loss of her "honey girls" any less painful.
"This wasn't about the honey," she said. "It was about raising bees and selling them to other people, and spreading the honey girls out there into the world. Now, I can't help anyone anymore, because all of them are dead."
