Locusts, sprays and bees: impacts on our food chain

In the last few days, I have posted here and here about the so-called locust plague and Eris O'Brien's viewpoint. The Stateline story is now up on their website.  You can look at it - and particularly note Eris O'Brien's thoughtful presentation - here.

My interest began with my friend Denis over at The Nature of Robertson who has done quite a number of posts on the locust situation which you will find by going here.  Denis's postings are quite extensive and explicit and I won't attempt to comment - but please read his posts.  They are important.

I do want to say that it is about time that we of the human species woke up to ourselves.  Who/what is the greatest threat to our wildlife, our food and water sources, our environment?  It is us.  Not the locusts.  Us.  We are a plague to our planet.  And we are not considering wiping ourselves out are we?  What we do have to do, though, is ask ourselves a few questions about what we are doing and what direction we are taking.  And we have to learn from the mistakes of our past.  And the most eloquent voice in all this was Rachel Carson.  Perhaps Carson was not the first.  However, in our times her voice has been the most significant, far-reaching and followed.

Australians, in particular, need to look at their own track record.  Point me in the right direction if I am wrong but I think we could take the cake for the biggest environmental vandals on the planet. We are up there with extinctions.  We are brilliant at land clearing.  We have a penchant for importing animals which become feral: the rabbit, the fox, the cane toad, etc.  They are the highly visible ones.  Go here for more information on our toxic importations.  Australians' use of pesticides, particularly in our food chain, continues with only limited abatement.  You might like to have a look at the article below.

Over at The Nature of Robertson, Denis asks:

I have a view about this which might not be popular, but if the Victorian Government told their electors that they were going to spray vast areas of the State with many different chemicals, nearly all of which are highly toxic to bees - what would the reaction be?

Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the bee.

The blue-banded native bee with a tomato blossom

Much is made of the European honey bee and the fact that Australia is now the only country in which there is a wild population. In fact, did you know that European honeybees collect 90% of available nectar and pollen but pollinate only about 5% of our plants?  In short, European honeybees are bludgers, free-loaders.  They can take their food without doing anything useful in return - like pollination.  The really hard yakka in the bee world in Australia is done by our very own native bees.

One of the things we might all consider is our gardens and how our small urban and suburban patches can make a positive contribution to Australia's ecology. Here I would like to put in a word for that great native bee attractor, the Native Frangipani.

When I lived in tropical North Queensland in the shadow of the World Heritage listed rainforest, I grew a beautiful specimen.  My neighbours were busy planting foreign palm species - and had to ask what my huge and beautiful (yes, it did get to be huge) tree was.  I believe it can be grown in quite diverse regions - besides the tropics.  Its beautiful, tiny, fragrant blossom attract those little black native bees well - like bees to a honeypot.  

I would ask that you have one more look at the Stateline program.  Look and listen and analyse what is being told to you in images and words in this locust segment.  It begins with Victoria's premier, John Brumby.  He doesn't say much - but it is clear that his presence gives this segment his imprimatur and adds to its stature.  Because of Brumby's presence, this gives status and stature to the locust story.  But how detailed is the information provided by the proponents of spraying?  I would say insufficiently detailed.  Insufficiently describing and circumscribing safety.  This contrasts with the detailed argument put forward by Eris O'Brien.

Related reading:

Australian Bee Lore and Bee Culture: Including the Influence of Bees on Crops and the Colour of Flowers and Its Influence on Bee Life [ 1912 ]

BEES FROM THE AUSTRALIAN REGION

Bees and honey (Australian industries series ; no. 16)

A classification of the bees of the Australian and South Pacific regions (Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History)

Commercial honey bees (Apis mellifera) reduce the fecundity of an Australian native bee (Hylaeus alcyoneus) [An article from: Biological Conservation]

BEES, CHIEFLY AUSTRALIAN SPECIES, DESCRIBED OR DETERMINES BY DR. H. FRIESE

A cluster of bees;: Sixty essays on the life-histories of Australian bees, with specific descriptions of over 100 new species,

The effects of the introduced honeybee (Apis mellifera) on Australian native bees (Occasional paper / National Parks and Wildlife Service)

The visual book of Australian bees (Bees in Australia)

Some Australian bees (Acad. of Nat. Sci. Proc)

On a collection of Australian and Asiatic bees (Bulletin / American Museum of Natural History)

Tree fern and honey bee: A study of aboriginal Australian ancestors of the Mapleton District

Further reading:

Beetle's big threat to bees and farmers

The exotic bee threat

Bee battle

Victoria, the food chain, & the coming chemical kill-off of locusts....wildlife & other insects

Eris O'Brien

Further to my post below on Eris O'Brien and the locusts, Eris was part of a segment on the locusts on Victoria's Stateline to-night. Eris uses the term locust migration instead of locust plague.  He also speaks of other options.  He spoke of the experience of long-ago farmers in the Wimmera district who used repellent methods other than chemicals to deal with the periodic extremes of numbers of locusts.

I find amazing some omissions from the public information.

Firstly, we are not told exactly how organic farmers - agricultural and horticultural - are managing or what their views are.  Organic food production is on the rise.  There is an increasing demand for it from consumers.  I would like to know what organic food producers are planning to do in their part of the food cycle.  It is said there is not ready availability of organically suitable pesticides.  Is this correct?  Will these types of insecticides be in widespread or limited use?  What assurances do we have to their safety both for humans, for wildlife and beneficial insects?

Secondly, I have not heard from any food activists (ones that you hear from in regard to genetic modification of food or in  discussion about ethical consumerism) of their views on the chemicals about to enter our food chain.


Nitrothion 1000 appears to be the chemical of choice for killing the locusts and I have above published a document which can be downloaded in this regard. Go here to follow up on a document relating to Nitrothion and locusts. On Statewide, all sorts of assurances were given:  there will be buffer zones; no spraying near waterways, beehive sites, and environmentally sensitive areas - so we are told. The manner of conveying this information was brief and offhand.


Where Eris O'Brien is clear and detailed in explaining the situation from his viewpoint, the proponents and deliverers of death by insecticide to locusts and, I believe, other wildlife were not trying to convince anyone really.


Their words were placed - as far as I could assess - as an afterthought and merely as a matter of form.


There was little or no attempt to explain, convince and assure.  And the whole Stateline segment appeared to have the imprimatur of John Brumby, Premier of Victoria, who participated in the beginning of the segment.  He did the reassuring with a well spoken version of  "she'll be right - we have the sprays" attitude.


The only one who put forward a point of view based on reason, experience, and science was Eris O'Brien.  He was convincing.  A pity the dominant view couldn't be bothered.  The dominant view clearly doesn't believe it has to convince anyone - and that everyone will just fall in behind their point of view and their execution of what is required to do a chemical kill-off of the locusts.  I would advise them to think again. I for one am not convinced.


I am new to Eris O'Brien's arguments - and, at the moment, I find his argument convincing.  Most convincing indeed!