It's National Pollinator Week! Spraying To "Protect" Linden Trees Produces Massive Bee Kill In OR

[hatrack]

An estimated 25,000 bumblebees have been found dead in a Target parking lot in Wilsonville since Saturday, the largest known incident of bumblebee deaths in the United States, according to the Xerces Society. Preliminary information suggests pesticides may be at fault.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture received reports of bees and other insects falling out of 55 blooming European linden trees Monday from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. The bees were still dying on Wednesday. Yellow-faced bees fell from the trees, twitching on their backs or wandering in tight circles on the asphalt. Some honeybees and ladybugs were also found dead. A few dead bumblebees even clung to linden flowers, while hundreds littered the lot.

Dan Hilburn, director of plant programs at the state Agriculture Department, surveyed the damage after an earlier assessment from pesticide experts. "I've never encountered anything quite like it in 30 years in the business," he said Wednesday outside the Argyle Square Target.

Hilburn said initial findings indicate the trees were sprayed Saturday with an insecticide called Safari. Tests to confirm what killed the bees will take at least two or three days, department officials said. The department of agriculture is also investigating other possible culprits, which may include other pesticides used in the surrounding area.

EDIT

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/20/1217444/-Massive-bumblebee-kill-in-Oregon-pesticide-spray-suspected

[Buzz Clik]

1. A bit of background:

Safari Insecticide. Where the wild things aren’t.

Safari Insecticide, a super-systemic insecticide with quick uptake and knockdown, controls a broad spectrum of ferocious and invasive pests, including Q- and B-biotype whitefly, Hemlock woolly adelgid, emerald ash borer, mealybug, mountain pine beetle 2(ee), leafminer, fungus gnat, black vine weevil, glassy-winged sharpshooter, armored and soft scale and lacebug—some of the most costly pests that affect high value greenhouse and nursery crops such as poinsettia and hibiscus, as well as trees, shrubs and herbaceous ornamentals in the lawn and landscape market. With two formulations, Safari is super-flexible when it comes to application.

http://www.valent.com/professional/products/safari/index.cfm

[DetlefK]

2. 150 bee-colonies killed. Sue the landscaping-company for damages.

[ladjf]

3. Another example showing that the human race is too stupid to survive. nt

[Trillo]

4. The use of systemic insecticides in plants sure has grown.... NT

[hunter]

5. Our yard has many insects, none of them are pests.

We don't use insecticides. It's my experience insecticides cause the problems they are supposed to "control." Along with the pests, insecticides kill everything that eats the pests, and it's the pests that reproduce quickest and evolve resistance to insecticides quickest. It's a vicious cycle that's very profitable for the companies that manufacture pesticides.

I don't use insecticides in the house either, the spiders seem to do a pretty good job.

We do use insecticides on the dogs when we visit places with ticks, otherwise they bring ticks home. When we do see ticks in the house, odds are they came home on our own clothes.

We used to have a problem with ants farming aphids, but we've made the yard very friendly to little aphid eating birds and the ants gave up that occupation. I'm pretty sure the ants are the reason we haven't seen fleas for a long time. I think the ants eat flea eggs and larvae.

Our major garden problem at the moment is gophers because we don't currently have a dog or cat patient enough to catch them, and worse, the newest member of our dog pack thinks he can catch them by digging.

I think pesticides ought to be available by "prescription only" and the licenses to "dispense" difficult enough to get (maybe equivalent to becoming a pharmacist, starting first with an environmental biology degree...) that most landscape maintenance or pest control companies wouldn't bother.

Maybe with much tougher regulations bee disasters like this wouldn't happen, and maybe many more people would learn how to live with minimal use of pesticides.