My coworker, Eco Geek Sarah Jackson, received this letter from a local beekeeper who wonders if her neighbor’s herbicide spraying could kill her bees. I asked Dave Pehling at the WSU extension for his take, and he kindly responded.
So first, the letter:
To Whom it May Concern:
I am a local beekeeper. Luckily all four of my hives have survived the winter. I call the bees “my girls” because the worker bees are immature females. Anyway, my girls are out foraging for nectar and pollen right now.
Allergy sufferers will agree that Spring is here. Dandelions are a nectar source for many pollinators not just the honey bee. Those yellow flowers are lovely to behold.
My neighbor, a nice older gentleman lives in a subdivision that was recently built in the floodplain between Everett and Snohomish. This neighbor was out spraying his dandelions with an herbicide. The bees will go to those contaminated flowers and bring the chemicals back to their hive. They will build their honeycomb and feed their young. People often ask me, “Why are the bees dying?”
Could my neighbor and all of the pristine lawn owners be partially to blame?
Also, these herbicides will end up in the wetlands and Snohomish River.
There are aisles of herbicides and pesticides in the local hardware stores.
Can we not just change the way we view our gardening habits? Why not change the word weeds to herbs.
Dorothea Eckert
Flying Tomato Farm
And here’s the response from the extension experts:
Dear Debra,
Over-application of “home and garden” products is certainly a concern and WSU Extension tries to encourage non-chemical methods whenever possible. Nearly all homeowners who feel they must have a “perfect lawn” are heavy users of chemicals (including fertilizers) and can contribute to pollution of our waterways and the decline of bee populations unless they are very careful. It would be nice if we could get these folks to tolerate a “less than perfect” lawn but I don’t see that happening without a great deal of education. WSU Extension, and our WSU Master Gardeners do what we can to encourage gardeners to become more aware of the hazards of chemical mis-use but it is all for naught if they are persuaded by clever advertising. Many people will say they never use pesticides but do use an occasional weed killer. Yes, weed killers are still pesticides.
Most problems with gardening chemicals arise from home gardeners not reading and following the label directions. Deviation from the label is against State and Federal law and often unsafe for not only the environment but for the applicator, too.
If pesticides and fertilizers are applied correctly, there should not be any run-off or drift. Again, unfortunately, many home gardeners do not read the label and cause many of the problems.
Herbicides are, in general, relatively non-toxic to honeybees. USDA’s Agriculture Handbook Number 335, “Beekeeping in the United States”, has this to say on the subject:
“Herbicides and fungicides have bases for their activity which render them relatively much less toxic to honey bees. Still such materials are present in the biosphere of the honey bee, and little information is currently available dealing with the effects of these chemicals in combination with insecticides—a situation which occurs often under normal field conditions. Moreover, such materials as herbicides and nonconventional insecticides (such as insect sex attractants and insect growth regulators) to which bees are being increasingly exposed likely will be transferred to honey and stored pollen with, as yet, incompletely documented results.”
On the other hand, many insecticides that drift onto blossoms are indeed toxic to pollinators. The worst are those that don’t kill quickly and are carried back to hive where the contaminated nectar and pollen are fed to larvae and adults. Dusts are often the worst because they adhere like pollen to hairs on the bees.
More information on “How to Reduce Bee Poisoning from Pesticides” is available in the WSU publication. Find the pesticide you are thinking of using in one of the tables and follow when or if it can be applied to blossoms. Or only use pesticides on the safe list. Another good practice is to mow and remove dandelions before spraying, or cover perennials or shrubs under a trees or shrubs to be sprayed with the more hazardous pesticides.
So…. the bottom line is that there is no proof that these materials are contributing to the decline of honeybees in the U.S. or in our area in particular. Until there is considerably more funded research, we just don’t have any data to implicate home lawn and garden products with our wide-scale honeybee decline at this time.
Cheers,
Dave Pehling and Sharon Collman
WSU Extension Snohomish County
600 128th ST SE
Everett, WA. 98208
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
