Some good news for bees – new tests find significant decreases in the use of bee-killing pesticides on “bee-friendly” plants. Friends of the Earth and the Pesticide Research Institute took samples of plants in 13 U-S cities and compared them to samples taken in 2013 and 2014. They were looking for neonicotinoid (NEE-oh-NICK-a-ton-oid) insecticides in plants sold to gardeners and home owners. In the previous tests, half of the plants tested positive for the toxins – this time, only 23 percent did. Tiffany Finck-Haynes with Friends of the Earth says retailers are starting to sell “bee-friendly” plants.
Bee populations have been, dwindling across the nation. A U-S-D-A-funded study by Purdue University confirms what many environmental groups had alleged – that the massive beehive die-offs known as Colony Collapse Disorder are linked in part to factory farms and pesticide use, and that plants pre-treated with neonicotinoids pass the toxins on to the bees.
Finck-Haynes says bee losses have to stop, and notes some retailers are still selling plants pre-treated with pesticides. She hopes consumers will put pressure on those companies.
She adds more than 100 businesses, cities, universities, states and countries have restricted use of pesticides that are lethal to bees. A survey by Greenhouse Grower magazine found nearly three-quarters of growers who supply mass merchants and home-improvement chains said they will not use neonicotinoids this year.