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New on the list of animals that use tools: Bumblebees

Scientists have discovered that bumble bees "actually can learn to use a new tool by watching others," says the Los Angeles Times. The results "add to a growing body of work showing that these kinds of smarts aren’t limited to bigger-brained, vertebrate animals (such as humans)." The research, published in the journal Science, went beyond so-called swarm intelligence to look at the capacity of individual bees.

Farms are eating up pollinator habitat, says study

Wild bees are disappearing in the country’s key farmlands from California to the Midwest to the Mississippi Valley, say researchers at the University of Vermont in the first study to map U.S. wild bee populations. The study found a 23-percent decline in wild bees in the contiguous U.S. between 2008 and 2013.

Project aims to help pollinators and people on the U.S.-Mexico border

Along the Arizona-Mexico border, conservationists are restoring habitat for more than 900 species of wild pollinators in an unprecedented effort that's also designed to create jobs and reduce poverty, reports Alexis Marie Adams in FERN’s latest story, co-produced with Scientific American.

It’s EPA’s call on how to regulate neonic seed coatings, rules judge

U.S. district judge William Alsup said he is sympathetic to the plight of bees and beekeepers but he cannot force the EPA to regulate neonicotinoid seed coatings as a pesticide. The environmental group Center for Food Safety, which represented the plaintiffs, said the decision was "a crushing blow" to attempts to control the side effects of the coatings.

Trump’s EPA-transition pick wants to deregulate pesticides

The head of Donald Trump’s EPA transition team, Myron Ebell, is not only a climate-change skeptic. He also has a history of discouraging pesticide regulations, writes Tom Philpott at Mother Jones, pointing to Ebell's role as the director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).

First bees added to U.S. endangered species list

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has placed the first bees ever on the federal endangered species list, with the addition of seven Hawaiian species from the genus Hylaeus, says National Geographic. Yellow-faced bees are the only native bees to Hawaii and the sole pollinators of a beach shrub known as naupaka, known for having flowers that look like they’re missing half their petals.

Home garden plants have fewer neonics

The level of neonicotinoid pesticides found on plants sold by large retailers to gardeners dropped to 23 percent this spring, according to a survey that looked at garden plants in 14 U.S. cities. In 2013 and 2014, neonicotinoid residue was found on more than half of the samples taken. Some experts blame the class of pesticides for Colony Collapse Disorder and other detrimental effects on pollinators.

Long-term UK study links neonics to wild-bee decline

An 18-year study of 60 wild bee species in Britain found that populations declined when the bees foraged on crops treated with neonicintinoid pesticides, according to the Washington Post. "The study provides some of the first evidence that the effects of neonicotinoid exposure can scale up to cause major damage to bees," the Post said.

Self-pollinating almond trees do away with bees

California farmers are turning to a new variety of self-pollinating almond tree, says NPR. With Independence almond trees, farmers don't have to hire commercial beehives.

State blames ‘neonic’ insecticide dust for bee losses

Minnesota compensated two beekeepers for severe damage to hives caused by neonicotinoid insecticide dust from the field where a neighbor was planting corn, says the Minneapolis Star Tribune. It was the first test of a landmark environmental law, says the newspaper.

France advances bill to ban neonicotinoids

France’s National Assembly narrowly passed a total ban on neonicotinoids, a class of pesticides that has been implicated in the Colony Collapse Disorder that has devastated honeybee populations, says Reuters.

Wild bumblebees are up for endangered species status

Federal wildlife biologists are considering whether to declare wild bumblebees endangered, reports The Denver Post.

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