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"The HTA, GCA and Bee Farmer Association all assert that there isn't enough scientific evidence to support a ban on neonicotinoid products, while suppliers including Bayer Garden are also urging retailers to think twice before issuing an outright ban on products."
http://www.diyweek.net/news/news.asp?id=16409&title=Friends+of+...
The most likely outcome of the discussions is a partial ban, based on the evidence we currently have. It will be banned for crops like canola/rape/colza, which are attractive to bees and not for crops like wheat that bees have no interest in. Research is ongoing but difficult, because of the need to reproduce large scale field conditions to get a true picture. The bottom line though, is that insecticides kill insects. The real aim will be to introduce the best possible practice to ensure target insects are killed and non-target species are not adversely affected. Part of the disquiet about neonics is that they are prophylactics, not reactives ie seeds are routinely treated with neonics, rather than the farmer making a decision about whether he needs to use them in response to an outbreak of some pest.
I may have to kill the next person who trots out the spurious Einstein quote though :-)
"I may have to kill the next person who trots out the spurious Einstein quote though :-)"
Just in case you don't know what Susan is referring to:
http://thewildbeechronicles.blogspot.fr/2011/09/eistein-never-said-...
Phil: Thanks for taking the time to provide that link. That is a really nice blog which I hadn't encountered before.
Protean Print: Bayer definitely isn't an unbiased source of info on this subject -- they are the manufacturers, and have had their product banned in Germany, the country where it is made and where they are based. Neonics are also currently banned in France, Italy and 2 other EU countries that I can't recall just at the moment.
Whether you actively spray or prophylactically treat seeds may not make much difference. One of the current problems with neonics is that they spread as very fine dust when seeds are sown, and as they are water soluble, they can enter the soil, including as runoff when farmers clean their machinery. This is one of the problems the EU discussions wish to address and tighten up the rules regarding. Spraying equipment has improved a lot and there is continuing development in this area.
What I would be more worried about is farmers not having to exercise professional and accountable skill and judgement in the use of pesticides.
The decline of insect pollinators is complex. Mostly it's due to loss of habitat for the wild species, and disease for the domestic species. Climate change will affect cold climate northern hemisphere groups like bumblebees, and exacerbate the habitat loss. Pesticide use and abuse plays a part, but it's only a part.
And of course, as your (insects) in brackets shows, insects aren't the only pollinators. Bats and birds are more important in the southern hemisphere and the tropics, and the three great world staples, rice, wheat and maize, are all wind pollinated.
Interesting and frustrating. Frustrating because I'd like to respond to the thread but because I can't see who I'm responding to I'm reluctant to do so.
I'm assuming Susan works within the chemical industry?
ROFL at the thought of me working for the chemical industry!
Sorry, I use this forum so rarely, I'm not sure what it is you want to see and where it is I should update so you can.
My background is biodiversity field surveying, specialising in lowland grasslands and several families of plants and insects (one of which is bumble bees). I'm not a landscaper or even a gardener (although some of my best friends are). Phil, who I have never met personally, invited me to join LJN some years ago because I knew about wild orchids. I'm Australian, but have lived in Europe for 15+ years. I used to work for the National Trust in the UK, now I live and work in France.
John -- there is a clear link between bee deaths (honey and bumble certainly -- nobody's studied the affect on wild solitary bees) and the spraying of neonics on sunflowers and the dusting of canola (rape) seed with neonics. Beyond that the links are very unclear and the professional jury is out. Thus the widespread feeling that a compromise whereby neonics could be allowed for use on wind pollinated crops that bees have no interest in is acceptable. Research is ongoing.
The reports of bee deaths being reduced appear to be anecdotal, and presumably refer only to honey bees. I've no doubt the banning of neonics was beneficial, because those bees would have been foraging on sunflowers and canola, but if these statistics don't take into account what the weather was like and any changes in hive management, they tell us nothing quantitative about the affect of neonics, and if the ban is total they don't tell us if it is relatively safe to use neonics on wheat.
Honey bees are in no danger of extinction globally -- in fact total numbers are increasing. Even if they did go extinct, we probably wouldn't notice much effect. Beekeepers habitually overstate their importance as pollinators, particularly outside of their native range (which is Europe and Africa). Their advantage to man is that they are essentially a domestic animal now, not a wild species. Thus they are bred in huge numbers, very useful for pollinating monocultures such as canola and commercial orchards. However there are many commercial crops that honey bees cannot pollinate -- all the New World plants we love, like tomatoes, potatoes, chillies, aubergines, pumpkins, squash, zucchini (courgette), cucumbers.
We need to be careful not to focus too closely on honey bees (and indeed the last major study of neonics was trying to replicate field conditions on bumble bees). We also need to be careful not to focus just on pesticides as the only nemesis bees face. Wild bee populations have bigger problems than pesticides, but also connected to modern farming practices. Without farmers onside, wild bees will continue to struggle.
I'm not an apologist for neonics -- far from it -- but I share Lynn Dicks' frustration with the well meaning misinformation out there.