Drought, pesticides take a toll on Chile’s crucial honeybees

By EVA VERGARA
Associated Press

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A drought has gripped Chile for 13 years and the flowers that feed honeybees in central Chile have grown increasingly scarce. So some keepers have headed to the nation’s far south seeking more plants with pollen. Others are relying more heavily on sugar-water substances that leave bees weakened and vulnerable to disease. Beekeepers also say their hives are threatened by a huge increase in recent decades in the use of pesticides. Those factors, along with parasites, have hit bee populations globally. And Chile has seen its exports of honey plunge over the past four or five years.