What is the cause? Numbers of credible scientific studies from across the globe point to pesticides, particularly the types of pesticides classified as neonicotinoids.
As a concerned beekeeper, realizing that nobody else was doing so, I did a survey of all the greenhouses, big-box stores and hardware stores in my area in Arizona. After a lot of legwork, emails, and phone calls, I discovered to my dismay that EVERY SINGLE ONE within a radius of many miles was selling bedding plants, shrubs, and trees that had been treated with neonicotinoids, the bee-killing, butterfly-killing, and pollinator-killing pesticides. Every petunia and geranium, and just about all other non-edible plants for sale in my area--and I'll bet in yours too!--have been treated with bee-killing pesticides, even in the better nurseries that grow native plants! It is rampant this year in the USA.
The growers whom I contacted shrugged and said, "Well, it's legal." Despite our pleas to the EPA, neonicotinoids ARE legal (they have only recently decided to ban some new versions of these toxins, but not the ones that are in our back yards.) Most neonicotinoids are illegal in the European Union, who acknowledge that they are killing bees, but most are legal here in the USA, even though we are losing 30% of our bees and incredible numbers of our pollinators every single year!
We need local grass-root activitists. We need people to band together and SHOUT about this! Lowe's, after being petitioned about this, pledged to "phase out" bee-killing pesticides on the plants they sell; they are going to do this over a course of four years. Although many applaud their decision, I don't think a four-year time period, while they rake in profits and kill more bees, butterflies, and songbirds, is anything to congratulate them on. Farmers are, naturally, responsible for using these pesticides, but now, in the USA, we can also find them on nearly every flower, shrub or tree we purchase to plant in our yards.
Neonicotinoids do not wash off. They remain on the plant for six months to six years. That's right. If you buy a tree treated with this stuff--and most trees are--the toxins eventually go into the soil, both to contaminate nearby plants, and to be sucked back up by the host plant to move into the nectar and pollen the bees require for survival.
Home Depot was found to be selling milkweed that had been treated with these poisons. Monarch caterpillars placed on this milkweed died. The store has apparently generously (and I'm being sarcastic) agreed to stop doing this BY THE END OF THIS YEAR'S GROWING SEASON! Meanwhile, everyone who buys milkweed at Home Depot, thinking they are helping the monarchs, are only helping them die. While Home Depot, after being petitioned, reluctantly agreed to label the plants they sell that are treated with bee-killing toxins, that is not going to take place until, again, the end of this year's planting season. They get a huge thumbs down for dragging their feet.
Of those who supply big-box stores (but not in my area, sadly), there is only one large grower, Bonnie Plants, who has completely stopped using neonicotinoids.
As a beekeeper, I have been studying the hard science. There are plenty of credible, well researched studies available. There are a few contradictory studies, and guess what? Although they are published under different names, nearly all of them appear to be spin put out by--guess who?--the manufacturers of these poisons!
By the way, neonicotinoids are also in many of the lawn and garden-care products bought by consumers. They are listed under a variety of names. And who reads labels on such products? The solution is not to buy ANYTHING with pesticide in it.
The skeptic in me thinks that as long as the Kardashians continue to be in the headlines, the media won't pay attention to what I consider the most dire issue on the planet. If we lose our pollinators, who are responsible for 90% of wildlife plants and most of our fruit and vegetables, Earth will become awfully bleak, if not uninhabitable. The optimist in me believes, however, in the power of the internet and communication.
Call your congresspeople! Call the EPA! Yes, a commission was created to study the bee crisis, but they do not plan to draw any conclusions for several more years. Meanwhile, the bees continue to die. Most importantly, talk to your local nurseries! Don't buy bedding plants unless you are positive they have not been treated (and, I discovered sadly in my research, the store folk & nursery employees will and do lie about this).
Also, please boycott Bayer aspirin, as Bayer manufactures these pesticides.
Image and article copyrighted, M. E. Raines
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