Bees died suddenly in 0826 "quiet summer in Puli, pollen poisoned the ecology with pesticides, melons and fruits were pollinated without bees.

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(by upstream and downstream reporters Cai Jiashan and Lin Jiyang)

Today is the day for bees to escape. Haji, a bee farmer in Nantou Puli, loaded boxes of few remaining bees into a van and set off for the mountains in the south. It has been the 12th day since he found signs of pesticide poisoning in bees, and it is estimated that 80% of them have died.

When betel nuts blossom and spray in August, they flee with bees, which has become the daily life of most bee farmers in Puli. However, this is not just a war between betel nut farmers and bee farmers, as a result of the massive spraying of pesticides, agriculture has been fully affected. Passion fruit, balsam pear and towel gourd all face the plight of the death of pollination bees and the reduction of production. During the betel nut spraying period, the bees suffer, and some farmers have to pollinate artificially, resulting in a great increase in workload.

The bees were not the only victims, and the flowers and plants were covered with pesticide spray. The "upstream and downstream" collected pollen from the dead beehive for identification. It was found that it mainly came from Xianfeng grass, patchouli thistle and mimosa, and a small number of betel nut pollen and passion fruit pollen were also found. These flowers are not only a source of food for bees, but butterflies and other insects also visit. When the pollen is infected with pesticides and poisons bees and butterflies, "Silent Summer" may fall in Puli year after year, burying not only the ecology, but also the future of mankind.

The pollen in the dead beehive "upstream and downstream" was identified by Wang Liangqi, a palynology expert in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences of Chiang Kai-shek University. The results showed that the bee farmers did not move because of their difficulties, but the officials would only advise "escape".

Bees in Puli have been poisoned by pesticides for three years in a row, and a large number of betel nuts die every August. The Council of Agriculture confirmed that spraying the forbidden drug fenpril is the main cause of death of bees. However, the government has been unable to come up with an effective countermeasure, and the bee farmers in Puli thought that it was difficult to resist the excessive spraying of betel nuts, so they had to flee with the bees one after another.

Why are you moving so late? Haji said that his family had an old father to take care of, so he couldn't move as soon as he could, but seeing that the bees were dying out, he had to find shelter quickly, and finally found a safe place to put the beehive through his friends in the south. After moving there, he still had to commute between the two places frequently, more than 300 kilometers back and forth, but he could not leave his father behind.

The severely damaged bee farmer, Ah Hua, is in poor health. If he moves bees, he has to commute between the beehive and his home every day. It is difficult to bear the burden of long-distance fatigue, so he has to continue to witness more than 200 boxes of bees continue to die.

Bee farmers put the few bees left after poisoning into trucks and moved elsewhere (provided by bee farmers) betel nut spray cars come and go every day, and there was nothing the government could do.

Another bee farmer, An is engaged in ecological tourism, tourists will come to visit the beehive at any time, can not move, bees are seriously killed and injured, have to buy box after box to make up, but can not keep up with the speed of bee death. "We are normal farmers, and we are really not reconciled to the influence of abnormal farming." He more directly criticized that the high-altitude spraying of betel nut will lead to ecological extinction.

According to the statement of the agricultural improvement farm in Miaoli District of the Council of Agriculture: according to the survey last week, most bee farmers have gone to other places to hide from the limelight. Bee farmers will already live in pursuit of honey sources, and those who remain in place should only be sporadic cases. But bee farmers say angrily that there are more than 40 people in Nantou who have been investigated by the government for pesticide poisoning. "will they only ask us to move?"

Betel nut spray, officials have been lazy for years, but bee farmers have reported bee poisoning incidents for three years in a row, but officials have not done anything actively, and they have repeatedly asked bee farmers to move, which is tantamount to asking bee farmers to take escape as normal. The Prevention and Inspection Bureau said that it would ban betel nut spraying, but up to now, spray trucks are still seen coming and going to betel nut orchards at more than five o'clock every morning.

A large number of bees have died in farmer Ah Zheng's beehive, and many bee farmers are worried that the news of bee poisoning will affect consumers' confidence in their products. Some farmers were interviewed and warned not to speak (photography / Lin Jiyang) passion fruit pollination bee poisoning, fruit farmers had to rely on artificial pollination

Bee poisoning is not just a matter for bee farmers. Passion fruit, balsam pear and towel gourd, which are rich in Puli, also need bee pollination. Zeng Wenchang, a neighbor of Yi Hsin Li, observes, "there are relatively few bees in this season every year!" He said that more than 20 years ago, there were wild bees everywhere, and there was no need to worry about pollination of melons and fruits at all. later, there were fewer wild bees, and farmers had to rent or buy bees to pollinate, but now they can't even keep the bought bees.

"our production of passion fruit and towel gourd has been decreasing in recent years." Zeng Mei, a fruit farmer who grows passion fruit, found that a box of bees they bought to pollinate passion fruit had pesticide poisoning not long ago, and two days later, the whole army was wiped out. She also believes that it has something to do with betel nut spray. "the flowers of Jingzi have the most serious influence. The medicine used is very poisonous, and any medicine can be washed. Jingzai Garden is all 'Mao' going out, and people from other places come to spray it."

There were no bees, so they had to come by themselves. Zeng Mei and her husband Shih Han-fu artificially pollinated the passion orchard. They pinched one flower after another, and they spent the whole day, and the passion fruit blossomed one after another, and the delivery period was busy from the end of June to before the Lunar New year. "if there are bees, there will be no manpower at all!" The two men practiced grass cultivation and tried their best to reduce the use of medicine, but they were still affected by pond fish, and uncontrolled betel nut spraying spread to all nearby farming that needed bee pollination.

Artificial pollination of passion fruit (Photography / Cai Jiashan)

The most famous producer of passion fruit, Dapingding, a co-operative surnamed Chen, also said: two cases of bees have died this month. "it's been pretty serious in the last two or three years!" He also said that in the past, people used to rely on wild bees to pollinate, but the number of wild bees decreased sharply, so they had to buy them, but the bought bees were often poisoned to death, and fruit growers had to buy more and more. There is a betel nut orchard 300 or 400 meters away from his orchard. "in the past, bee farmers came here to rent land and release bees, but now no one dares to come up."

In Yixin, another fruit farmer surnamed Peng called louder: "Bees are our parents of food and clothing!" Without bees, passion fruit will not bear fruit. Why is betel nut allowed to poison us with such a poisonous medicine? In this way, the government is killing the livelihood of our farmers! "

The bees bought by passion fruit farmers to pollinate were wiped out (Photo / Cai Jiashan) balsam pear pollination bees were also killed or injured.

Not only fruit farmers but also vegetable farmers suffer. Yu Xian of balsam pear agriculture and forestry in Puli found that his more than 20 boxes of pollinated bees were placed outside the net room.