There is no product against poisoning. Protection lies entirely in prevention — and in recording what happened.

How to recognise it

• Large numbers of dead bees in front of the hive in a short time
• Trembling bees with poor coordination
• Dead bees with the tongue extended
• A sudden loss of foragers
• The same picture in several colonies at once

That last is the distinguishing feature: disease rarely strikes all colonies on the same day.

The sublethal side

This is most often underestimated. Lower doses affect orientation, learning and brood development.

A bee that cannot navigate does not return. She is not counted as a death but she is gone — which makes the real damage greater than the number of dead bees.

What lowers the risk

• Talk to the grower. Knowing the spray calendar changes everything
• Close or move the hives on application days
• Provide your own water source; puddles on the field are an exposure route
• Choose the site deliberately relative to intensively sprayed fields
• Talk to neighbours and gardeners; doses there are often judged by eye

On suspicion

• Collect the dead bees in clean packaging
• Photograph the scene in front of the hive
• Record date, time, location and colonies affected
• Report it to the competent authority

Without samples and records nothing can be established afterwards and no compensation is possible.

What the colony needs afterwards

An affected colony has lost foragers. It can use clean feed, water and sometimes strengthening with sealed brood frames.

Contaminated pollen and stores should come out of the hive; the comb goes out of circulation.

The mutual side

Pollination raises yield and quality in many crops. Explaining that is the best route to cooperation — a grower who benefits from the bees is more likely to protect them.