The hives are now empty, with only a few buzzing and many dead bees on the ground. A hobby beekeeper, who also has hives nearby, had called Dzenis shortly before about the strange behavior. In addition, Sarmīte, a resident of a nearby house, had also noticed that a tractor with a sprayer was working on the flowering field at that very time of the day.
"It was a sunny day and something was roaring and, as usual, you look and see what is there and then there was the sprayer, it was the middle of the day, the sun was shining and it was spraying all day long," said Sarmīte.
There are 28 colonies in total in this hive, which have been badly affected but are slowly recovering. The beekeeper is convinced from the outset that the bees died because of insecticides.
Asked how the bees are doing now that most of the colony is gone, Dzenis said: "There is brood that has been kept closed and they will eventually sort themselves out because they didn't get the chemicals and the colony will slowly recover by autumn. OK, I won't get the honey, but there's also breeding material [..] and that's two years of work that has gone into it. And it's not the first time, it's not the second time, it happens quite regularly, all the big beekeepers have had to deal with it."
"Most of the time it is silenced. (...) Because you can never really prove it..." added Ainārs Millers, a beekeeper representing the Beekeepers' Association. Often dead bees are discovered late and it is not possible to find out whether and what plant protection products were used in the nearby fields during the day.
On this occasion, however, the beekeeper immediately reported the matter to the State Plant Protection Service (VAAD), whose experts took samples at the scene the following day, June 6. Inga Aizpura, Head of the Plant Protection Products Supervision Unit at VAAD, explained that it is a gross violation to apply insecticides during the day on flowering fields, they can only be applied in the evening hours when pollinators are no longer present.
The latest analysis information shows that both bee and field bean samples show the presence of thiacloprid. This means that an insecticide banned in the EU since 2021 has been used in the field and is most likely the cause of the bee deaths, VAAD said. The field in question is managed by the crop production company Baltic RM Ltd, which could not be reached by phone.
VAAD said that the farm would be administratively penalized and the Rural Support Service would be informed.
Mass bee deaths due to misused pesticides were previously confirmed by VAAD several years ago and one complaint has been received so far this year. The legal penalty for improper use of plant protection products can be up to €10,000.
