Posted: April 3, 2020

This is the eighth of our new monthly updates from us here at Beescape! As always, we will use this newsletter to share Beescape updates, interesting study results, and other relevant information related to Beescape and associated projects!

Greetings from the Beescape Team!

An important new study by Maggie Douglas and colleagues was published recently in Bioscience! In this paper, scientists found that, although farmers often ARE familiar with the pesticides they directly apply to their crop fields, they know a lot less about the pesticides affixed to seeds BEFORE they are planted in the ground (i.e., "seed treatments"). In fact, in many cases, farmers believed their fields were pesticide free but, in reality, unseen seed treatments meant that their fields actually contained pesticides (both insecticides and fungicides). Check out a great summary of the new study. Do you think seed treatments impact your bees?

Finally, we would be remiss if we did not provide another reminder about the Fall/Spring survival survey from 2019/2020 - if you have not already filled out your Fall survival survey, there is still time! In fact, you can complete your Fall survey at any point before you complete your spring (2020) survey. By contributing fall (and spring) survival data through Beescape, the Beescape Team can better predict the landscape factors (including weather and climate) associated with metrics of bee health like overwinter survival and nectar flows! We need BOTH Fall and Spring surveys for each apiary to make use of the data -- one without the other cannot be added to our models. We are excited to use your data to make better tools (like our new Bee Winter Wise tool) to predict honey bee landscape dynamics!

As always, feel free to contact us at with any questions, comments or concerns -- including assistance with filling out your Beescape surveys. We always love hearing from you.

Sincerely,

The Beescape Team