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  • Honeybees and Tansy Ragwort...

    From [email protected]@21:1/5 to All on Thu Jul 21 17:17:14 2016
    I see this is a VERY old post but I have been working for the county pulling tansy ragwort and have also seen mass numbers of dead bees on the tansy. Did you ever find anything else out?

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  • From Julian Macassey@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Fri Jul 22 15:02:31 2016
    On Thu, 21 Jul 2016 17:17:14 -0700 (PDT),
    [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:

    I see this is a VERY old post but I have been working for the
    county pulling tansy ragwort and have also seen mass numbers of
    dead bees on the tansy. Did you ever find anything else out?

    I can find no reports of it being lethal to bees. It is
    toxic to cattle and horses.

    Tansy ragwort honey is bitter.

    http://www.nwcb.wa.gov/publications/Tansy_brochure.pdf

    + Also, honey containing nectar from tansy ragwort tastes so
    + unpleasant it can’t be sold.

    http://bcinvasives.ca/invasive-species/identify/invasive-species/invasive-plants/tansy-ragwort

    + Tansy ragwort reduces forage production of pastures by up to 50%,
    + and alkaloids in the plant taint honey produced by bees so that
    + it is too bitter and off-color to market.

    Tansy ragwort is invasive throughout the Pacific North
    West and should be pulled.

    --
    “Advice is a cheap commodity some seek it from me about crime — I know only one
    thing for sure — If you want to make crime pay — ‘Go to Law School.’ ”
    - Whitey Bulger, Boston Gangster

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  • From [email protected]@21:1/5 to All on Thu Jul 20 22:43:01 2017
    Hello! Obviously this is a very old thread, but... I manage pasture in the Portland area pulling tansy ragwort, and have also noticed dead honeybees on the flowers, but have ALSO noticed discrete, pale yellow spiders lurking on the same flowers,
    camouflaged in the tansy. Every dead bee I've found, to my knowledge, has been a victim of these spiders. I also see plenty of honey and other bees coming and going without apparent issue. However, I've never seen more than maybe 3 dead on the same set
    of flowers.

    p.s... livestock know not to eat tansy and will leave it alone, unless it's dried and baled in their hay.

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  • From Julian Macassey@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Mon Jul 24 04:43:01 2017
    On Thu, 20 Jul 2017 22:43:01 -0700 (PDT), [email protected] wrote:

    Hello! Obviously this is a very old thread, but... I manage
    pasture in the Portland area pulling tansy ragwort, and have
    also noticed dead honeybees on the flowers, but have ALSO
    noticed discrete, pale yellow spiders lurking on the same
    flowers, camouflaged in the tansy. Every dead bee I've found,
    to my knowledge, has been a victim of these spiders. I also see
    plenty of honey and other bees coming and going without
    apparent issue. However, I've never seen more than maybe 3 dead
    on the same set of flowers.

    Thanks good to know.


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    "That's not the way the world really works anymore, We're an empire now,
    and when we act, we create our own reality." Karl Rove to Ron Suskind

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