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The puzzle of honey bee losses: a brief review

The impact of pesticides on honey bees is an issue that has been studied for many years and is now being reconsidered because con-troversy still exists with the relationship of insecticides and Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). It is insufficient to explain CCD with only bee pathology studies. Research must be conducted on a wider series of causes: i) in open field and agroecosystems, to under-stand the fate of pesticide blends, ii) in the hives, to determine ways to enhance honey bee defence to diseases and parasites. Refer-ences regarding imidacloprid and CCD in the maize agroecosystems are critically reviewed. Pesticides and the thechniques to ra-tionally use them (in particular following the integrated pest management guidelines) represent one of the several puzzles regarding the mystery of CCD or honey bee vanishing. An appendix, i.e., a rejected letter to Science and relevant reply, is also reported.