Bees and Insecticides - Update

[Lavender2]

Recent news from the University of Minnesota -
U of M - August 1, 2010

Native plants grown in greenhouses and transplanted outside may contain high levels of imidacloprid which may kill pollinators.

There are multiple ways that plants in urban landscapes can contain imidacloprid -contaminated nectar, since it is commonly applied in the landscape for many pests (Krischik and Davidson 2004) and many greenhouse plants are treated with prior to sale and transplanting.

The greenhouse rate used on perennial landscape plants states that 300 mg AI/ 3gallon pot with 1 plant can be used. This is an 800 times higher rate for corn and 2700 times higher rate for canola. Consequently, greenhouse and urban landscapes use higher concentrations of imidacloprid, which are often reapplied and used at peak flowering, which results in higher concentration being translocated directly to flowers. Consequently, these levels have great potential to alter behavior or kill pollinators and beneficial insects more than the seed treatment Gaucho where most of the research has been done.

.... (much more info in the article link)
This is also widely used on potted trees, including some fruit trees.
Just one more reason to search for organic sources ... and ask a lot of questions about what you are buying ... :/
I will be sending this link to the local nurseries ...

 

[hoodat]

Another good reason to start your own plants from seeds or cuttings.

 

[Lavender2]

Another good reason to start your own plants from seeds or cuttings.

That's what I do, hoodat. Almost everything in my ten perennial beds was started from seed or received from trading. It's hard to pass up the close-out plant sales, but I'm cheap, and I have better luck with plants I start from seed.

This just BURNS me to no end! I know these insecticides have been under scrutiny for many years ... but I looked closer after a recent trip to Home Depot.
Changing the subject a bit ... It's a REAL bad year for moles! (Good for the mole I guess ..)
I usually just leave them be, as their damage is minimal. Very wet weather and a very early Spring has caused a population explosion. The damage is getting out of hand, especially around our foundations.

Anyway, I went to HD to purchase a mole trap. A clerk rushed over to assist me ... insisting that I MUST get rid of the mole's food source or I will NEVER get rid of the moles. She recommended Bayer Advanced Complete insect killer. I informed her that I was not interested in making my property a morgue for all living things... I don't want anything that ends in 'cide' or that I cannot pronounce. I came for a T R A P!

"It is very difficult to trap them"!, she said. I told her kindly, that I am not stupid... I will figure it out. She walked away, noticeably disgusted.
Imidacloprid is one of the main killers in Bayer Advanced.
HD has been sent a letter, also an email, and I will be contacting them by phone, if that's possible

I respect that they are in the business to sell that crap, but this shows NO respect for consumer's choice. Perhaps they need to train their associates on how to use a mole trap!... and learn how to show support for folks who don't want their chemicals.

BTW, I trapped 4 moles last week...

 

[hoodat]

The best mole trap is the kind that straddles the burrow and has a trip wire that goes into it. The wire is the only thing in the burrow so the mole doesn't get suspicious. When it hits the trip wire a spring loaded pair of blades stabs down into the soil. It usually kills tham instantly. You have to be careful though. If a curious dog or child digs it up and trips it, it could injure them.

 

[Andy J]

I just got dogged out by a woman on another forum for posting that I killed a mole in my compost.I was shoveling compost into a wheel barrow and uncovered a mole.I threw it to the chickens and they tore it to shreds.She said that I should have left it alone,that moles are beneficial.I informed her that when they tear up my yard and garden that I worked hard to maintain,they aren't beneficial to me.Earthworms are one of their favorite foods and that's what they're looking for.I would rather have worms than moles any day!

Andy J

 

[hoodat]

I don't find moles particularly beneficial from the atndpoint of the gardener. Their burrows disturb and dry out roots of plants they burrow under. I suppose they do some good by eating grubs but the harm they do offsets that. I believe in live and let live but when they damage my garden they're on my turf.

 

[digitS']

. . .

The greenhouse rate used on perennial landscape plants states that 300 mg AI/ 3gallon pot with 1 plant can be used. This is an 800 times higher rate for corn and 2700 times higher rate for canola. Consequently, greenhouse and urban landscapes use higher concentrations of imidacloprid, which are often reapplied and used at peak flowering, which results in higher concentration being translocated directly to flowers. Consequently, these levels have great potential to alter behavior or kill pollinators and beneficial insects more than the seed treatment Gaucho where most of the research has been done.

.... (much more info in the article link)
This is also widely used on potted trees, including some fruit trees.
Just one more reason to search for organic sources ... and ask a lot of questions about what you are buying ... :/
I will be sending this link to the local nurseries ...

See, this begs the question of why is a systemic insecticide used on food crops?

A systemic makes the entire plant toxic. It isn't a contact spray or something that stays on the surface of the plant for awhile and poisons the insect that ingests it.

No, the purpose of these insecticides is to be absorbed into the tissue of the plant . . . and stay there. The claim is often, "up to 2 months."

Systemics are used on things like corn and beans "60 days before harvest." A bean plant would just have time to emerge from the soil - 60 days later it should be covered with snapbeans.

Aldicarb still out there? Yep. It was used in the rose greenhouse where I worked way back during the Pleistocene.

There was quite a concern about incidents of contaminated ground water where aldicarb had been used for years on orange groves. First of all, why is it used on an orange tree?

It seems to me that if the residual toxin cannot be found in the crop and yet it builds up in ground water -- testing of the food crop must not be adequate. And, it is one thing to apply a toxin that is intended to stay on the surface of the plant and another thing to intend to make the entire plant toxic. Further, there is a difference between an ornamental plant and food.

Steve

 

[hoodat]

These days they take it even a step farther. They build the insecticide into the DNA of the plant.
I've always maintained that if something kills one form of life it can't be harmless to the other forms. It's all tied together. Animal red blood cells and plant chlorophyl are remarkably similar.