# More ... > Beekeeping and the environment >  Rosemary Mason claims leading journal 'nature' is in the pocket of Syngenta!

## Jon

> All that Cressey has done is to demonstrate that Nature is no longer a journal of high scientific integrity, but a mouthpiece for the agrochemical industry.


Unhappiness regarding Nature's failure to accept her paper with Tennekes succinctly expressed in a 13 page letter.
Sometimes hard to get all your thoughts into just a few words.

http://moraybeedinosaurs.co.uk/neoni...f%20Nature.pdf

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## drumgerry

Jon I really wish I could motivate myself to read that!  I think I must be suffering from too much time lurking on beekeepingforum!

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## Neils

I'm sorry, who is Rosemary Mason?

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## Jon

A disgruntled eco campaigner (non beekeeper) who visited Orkney earlier in the year who then claimed that varroa was a symptom rather than a cause of bee health problems and the varroa only caused a problem because the colony was weakened by neonicotinoids.

What is the truth about the Varroa mite?




> Pesticide companies and their supporters blame Varroa mite, or one of the many viruses that have been found in dead and dying bees, for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). However, infection with Varroa, or any of these pathogens, is a symptom, not a cause.


So we can add 'Nature' journal to the list of shills.

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## madasafish

P_esticide companies and their supporters blame Varroa mite, or one of the many viruses that have been found in dead and dying bees, for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). However, infection with Varroa, or any of these pathogens, is a symptom, not a cause._

so logically the fact that my bees have varroa is a symptom of poisoning by neonicotinoids.

My bees must fly much further than nature intended: the nearest  fields with planted crops must be at least 5 miles away - and possibly in reality 10 miles away..

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## Jon

Surely we established months ago that recourse to facts and evidence is one of the main strategies of a shill!
You have obviously taken a few calls from the editor of Nature

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## Neils

> A disgruntled eco campaigner (non beekeeper) who visited Orkney earlier in the year who then claimed that varroa was a symptom rather than a cause of bee health problems and the varroa only caused a problem because the colony was weakened by neonicotinoids.


Hmmm, heard that one before, can't think where though  :Wink:

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## Neils

Actually this narrative worries me a lot.

If I could give one piece of advice only to a new beekeeper it would be 'keep on top of varroa' so to see it now being co-opted as a benign entity except when bees are already suffering from exposure to a particular pesticide class worries me enormously.

I don't intend to trivialise or diminish any of the other issues in and around beekeeping but I continue to believe that in isolation varroa continues to pose the biggest challenge to UK Beekeepers.

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## Jon

I totally agree with that.
Too many mites = shorter lived bees = small clusters = overwintering problems.
One of the biggest mistakes of those who go down the 'natural' beekeeping route is electing to leave varroa untreated.
For every Michal Bush there are 100 beginners who lose their couple of colonies to the mites.

The Ingemar fries/Bond experiment should be sobering reading, 13 survivors out of 150 so what are your chances if you only own a couple of colonies.

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## prakel

> 13 survivors out of 150 so what are your chances if you only own a couple of colonies.


The odds are stacked even higher if we then consider that Prof Ratnieks research has suggested that only about 10% of UK colonies are hygienic. -I know it's only one mechanism; but it's an important one in the mix.

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## madasafish

As varroa are a man introduced bee mite, then non treatment  can be considered "not natural".


But then I threat (with thymol)

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## Jon

The Primorsky bees (Russians) could be considered as one giant bond experiment.
They have been exposed to varroa mites for approximately 150 years and have developed some resistance but not total resistance like Apis Cerana, the natural host of the mite.

There are a few people keeping bees alive without treatment, Michael Bush is probably the best known, but he is in an area (Arizona) with Africanized bees and doubtless has some of that genetics in his stock. He is at altitude as well and the winters are long and very cold. Others crow for a while about not treating and then go very quiet after a couple of years and then start to justify 'soft' treatments.

There is no point in refusing to kill the mites unless you have a good idea why your particular circumstances might be conducive to bee survival with non treatment. Other than that, the odds are stacked well against you.

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## gavin

> As varroa are a man introduced bee mite, then non treatment  can be considered "not natural".


Are you saying that two non-naturals make a right?!

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## gavin

LOL!  There is some real comedy gold in that letter.  One of my favourites is just 3 lines in:

As a result of the lack of media coverage, you are
to be forgiven for having little knowledge of the issues.

For students of the development of conspiracy theories there are exceedingly rich pickings.  I ran out of fingers trying to count them.

This bit is weird:

 Based on the evidence of the close relationship between Nature and Syngenta I sent
to you on 07/01/2013, and your subsequent silence on the matter, we are forced to
assume that some editors in Nature did know about this fake journal: The Journal of
2

Environmental Immunology and Toxicology, set up by two employees of the US EPA
to capture our paper. It is in press, but we cannot submit it to another journal.
Our suggestion that Nature recover it from JEIT, publish it and make a public
withdrawal of Dr Juliet Osborne’s paper must have been unwelcome to Syngenta.

They are referring to their paper claiming that global declines in biodiversity are due to neonics.  The paper they got 'published' in a journal that doesn't seem to exist.

http://www.boerenlandvogels.nl/sites...12-00001_0.pdf

G.

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