Manufacturer Causes Bee Kill

In Switzerland last April there was a mass poisoning of bees originally blamed on local farmers, but it turned out that wasn’t the case. 172 colonies were poisoned in the regions of Zäziwil and Möschberg.

Authorities analyzed the poisoned bees and found that the poison was the insecticide Fipronil, which is banned in Switzerland. Poisoning occurred during the flowering of fruit trees, so the relevant departments of government continued to seek and identify the active substance in the flowering trees.

Fruit growers had proper documentation from which it was evident that they sprayed fruit trees with a fungicide Folpet, which is allowed in Switzerland. But that didn`t stop investigators. They discovered that approved insecticide Folpet was imported from Israel, where the factory before filling fungicide (Folpet) filled Fipronil for the United States. It turns out that the equipment was not cleaned before they started to use Folpet. Therefore, the Swiss withdrew from the market all the fungicide from those batches.

This is a great example of good practice, how all investigations should be conducted. We hear too many times stories about the mass poisoning of the bees without an outcome.

From BeeTime EU

Source:, and

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