Millions of bees found dead along the Rhine river in Germany

Up to two thirds of the bees of the peoples along the Rhine in the Rhine village-south and hit village have died from poisoning. Now experts are looking for the cause. Contamination of the Rhine water is unlikely.

A million bees, as new estimates from the Veterinary Office are dead on the mysterious bee deaths on Monday and Tuesday. The colonies were all along the Rhine in the Rhine village-south and hit village. According to master beekeeper Konrad Kappek all the flying bees have come in the affected bee colonies by poisoning killed up to two thirds.

Kappek says that the people in the village Rhine-South were the most affected. Even from the north of the district, there were no reports of poisoning. Not even from the other side of the Rhine. So be a poisoning of the waters of the Rhine, from which the animals drink, not very likely, said the Leverkusen official veterinarian Kurt Molitor. Even further down the Rhine and from Wiesdorf there were no messages. It is affected only this narrow strip of Leverkusen. With the current heat looking bees up to three miles from their hive for food.

20 to 30 nations from six beekeepers were severely damaged. The poisoning on Monday has passed very quickly and acutely, says Molitor: The insects were so weakened back to the sticks that they had died prior to the admission holes in droves. The poison could hardly come from a private garden, as Molitor, that was a bit larger. “The bees dying is frightening because we do not know anything yet,” says the official veterinarian. In question is about a poisoned rape field. Blooming rapeseed has an almost magical attraction to bees. But none of the farmers who Molitor, has interviewed have used a bee-toxic pesticides. Farmers need bees for pollination of their fields. That something poisonous was applied to the Rhine meadows, the official veterinarian also closes out.

The wind came on Monday, according to information from Bayer from south-southeast. So just from the direction in which the hazardous waste landfill, the wastewater treatment plant and incinerator are. In the factories there had been no problems to make the information of a Currenta speaker. Also not with the holes in the landfill body that run because of the highway planning at the time.

Information can only bring the dead animals yourself. A glass full of poisoned bees, he was sent to a study institution, Molitor. First, was wanted by the usual suspect toxins, then after more exotic substances. Of these, from hanging when the result come.