Millions of honey bees in South Carolina have died after the area was sprayed with pesticide in the fight against the Zika virus.
Dorchester County officials have acknowledged the killing of the bees but said that a notice to beekeepers was sent out more than 24 hours before spraying, reports Mashable.
However, local beekeepers told ABC they had only ten hours to prepare for the spraying.
So many bees dead after the aerial spray
Posted by Flowertown Bee Farm and Supplies on Tuesday, August 30, 2016
One apiary, Flowertown Bee Farm in Summerville, lost 2.5 million bees as 46 hives died on the spot.
Company co-owner Juanita Stanley said her farm ‘looks like it’s been nuked’ while another local beekeeper, Andrew J Macke, likened the aerial spraying to ‘carpet bombing’ and said he’d lost tens of thousands of dollars due to the incident.
He said:
Due to this high temperature there are literally thousands upon thousands of bees hanging off the outside of the hive.
Aerial spraying is just plain insane – there needs to be a registry for beekeepers and they can do mosquito abatement from the ground to stay a safe distance away from the beekeepers.
Four cases of the mosquito-born virus have been confirmed in the area and as a result the area was sprayed with Naled, an insecticide commonly used to kill adult mosquitoes.
Naled kills mosquitoes – and bees – on contact but doesn’t pose a risk to people – although direct exposure ‘should be avoided’ according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
RIP bees.
