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Re: wild pollinator loss




From: PHRC031@unlvm.unl.edu (Jane Sooby)

<<Dear People,
Yesterday I received a call from a beekeeper in
northwestern Nebraska who has noticed that there
are almost no wild pollinators out this season. This
includes not only honey bees but bumble bees and
butterflies.

I know there has been some attention paid to this
issue in the popular press lately. Does anyone
have any ideas about what's going on? The implications
of pollinator loss, should this be permanent, are
more frightening than any doomsday scenario we've come
up with so far.>>

    I am a beekeeper, who specializes in crop pollination.  Our most
difficult time is midsummer, when cotton and mosquito spraying reach their
peak. The applications that kill bees are the ones that are done in
violation of label directions, so it is not pesticide use that kills bees,
it is pesticide MIS-use.

   Oftentimes these are officially sanctioned.  Here is a letter to the
editor on one local problem and a possible solution.  We are begging
officials for implementation and enforcement of pesticide label laws.



August 1, 1996

Letter to the editor:

Please Help Document (and Stop) Pesticide Misuse

    Do you enjoy sweet watermelons?  -Crisp cucumbers?  -Tangy kiwi fruit?
  Without our bees, melons will be small and tasteless, cucumbers will be
tough and knotty, and kiwi fruit won't be produced at all.  Pesticide
misuse is one of the main reasons for loss of our pollinators, the bees. 
And some of this misuse is "official!"

    Daytime mosquito spraying is illegal, if the label directions forbid
application while bees are foraging (and most do).  I appeal to any
environmental-minded citizen to help me identify and document violations. 

    Here in South Carolina the mosquito control people routinely ignore
the label directions for bee protection.  Most insecticides have label
directions, which prohibit application while bees are foraging in the
application area. The label is the law.

   Insecticide applications that are made in the evening, when the bees
are not foraging, ARE in compliance with the label directions on bee
protection.  This is the proper way to do it. 

    This past week, Charleston County was doing aerial applications during
the late morning, which is the peak time of foraging activity by the bees.
 If this material had directions prohibiting this while bees were
foraging, it was a clearcut violation.

    I have communicated with the director of the program of the
requirement to obey the labels.  All my communications have been ignored. 
Violations are still occuring.  I have  seen the effect, with weak and
sickly bees, that become expensive salvage cases, rather than strong
hives, capable of pollinating our crops.

    There has been a lot of publicity lately about pollinator reductions
from parasitic mites, which have caused losses.   Our public officials
would like to blame ALL the pollinator losses on varroa mites, a
politically correct explaination, that helps them evade responsibility.
But we were rapidly losing bees before varroa mite was a factor. 

    I have repeatedly asked Clemson pesticide enforcement people to stop
these violations, but the requests are ignored.  They refuse to make spot
checks, and often complain of lack of funds and personnel.

    The real reason is that beekeepers have no political clout, and few
folks recognize the importance of pollination in our food supply.  So no
one protects our pollinators.  This is where you can help.

    I have been trying to document these violations, but unfortunately
have been unable to do so.  I live nearly two hours from Charleston, and
keep nearly 1000 hives for crop pollination in many different SC counties.

    The director continues to try to circumvent compliance with these
clear label directions, by telling beekeepers that they have to come and
"protect" their hives.  In the first place, I cannot run to Charleston
every time Vector Control sprays.  If I did, I would be giving them
permission to ignore the law, which I have no authority to do.  I have
bees over a two hundred mile range, and they may be exposed to insecticide
applications at ten or twenty sites, on any given day in mid-summer.  I
must rely of applicators to obey the law. 

    Furthermore, the label does not specify "honeybees that are kept by
humans."  It refers to all bees -- bumblebees, honeybees, solitary bees,
kept bees, wild bees......   Even if I could protect my own bees, I could
not protect the others.  The director, by insisting on beekeepers
protecting hives, is declaring his intent to ignore the label directions. 
He is thereby committing a wilful misuse, thereby changing the violation
into a criminal act. If I can document the violation, I can bring forth
the previous notifications, so as to show the wilfulness.  I will swear
out a warrant for his arrest for criminal pesticide misuse.

   If Vector Control wants to spray earlier, I have repeatedly offered
them free use of some hives to help them monitor foraging and comply with
the law.  They can then establish by fact, rather than by assumption, the
hours when bees are foraging.  These offers have been ignored.

   If you see a daytime application in your area (Charleston or otherwise
- we must protect our pollinators everywhere, from this misuse), and you
can document this with a camera, or better, a camcorder, please do so. 
Then, document that bees are foraging, by showing bees on your flowers. 
Any bees will do, bumblebees, solitary bees, honeybees - the more the
better.  - Any blossoms within the application area.  Don't film yellow
jackets, wasps or hornets. These are not bees!  

   Write down date, time, and as many details as you can.  Telll exactly
where the application was seen, and what flowers were blooming in the
area.  If your camcorder shows it, make sure the date and time are
accurate and visible.

    Please contact me, if you can help!   We will report suspected
violations.  We will follow through with charges, if the label directions
are disobeyed. The food supply for our children and grandchildren depends
on our pollinators.  Wild pollinators that are destroyed take many years
to rebuild their populations.  Beekeepers that go bankrupt, may never be
replaced.  Our pollinator populations are already greatly reduced, and the
remainder are becoming ever more valuable.

    We acknowledge the need to provide mosquito control, and we are not in
opposition to pesticide use.  We do oppose pesticide MIS-use.  We'll do
our best to stop this abuse by our civil "servants."

    Another thing.....if you care at all for the loss of this important
environmental resource, please contact your legislator and tell him to
tell the pesticide regulators at Clemson to do their job!

Pollinator@aol.com    Dave Green,  PO Box 1200,  Hemingway,  SC
29554

Practical Pollination Home Page            Dave & Janice Green
http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html   


Pollinator@aol.com                                   Dave and Janice Green
Practical Pollination Home Page    
http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html  
PO Box 1200, Hemingway, SC    29554


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