Since the List is a discussion group, IMHO, there haven't been that many
topics of interest of late to discuss -- no new scientific breakthroughs,
no big beekeeping issues, so no need for chatter.
Here's onetopic that may affect our industry:
Headline: Stockton Beekeeper Charged with Conspiring to Receive and Sell
Smuggled Illegal Pesticides.
Between Sept. 9, 2020, and July 12, 2022, Perez purchased the Mexican
pesticides 1,000 to 1,500 liters at a time and paid a total of
approximately $476,680 for the banned product. Perez resold the pesticides
to beekeepers in other states, including Oregon, Washington, Georgia, and
Florida.
Perez is scheduled for arraignment on March 29, 2024. If convicted of the
conspiracy charge, Perez faces a maximum statutory penalty of five years in
prison and a $250,000 fine. He faces a maximum penalty of one year in
prison and a $25,000 fine if convicted of the unlawful sale and
distribution of pesticides.
As I've been warning in my articles in ABJ, EPA has been letting us know
for some time that it was not happy with beekeeper use of Taktic and
Bovitraz -- the Elephant in the Room. This crackdown was fully telegraphed
and expected.
The result of the above action is that our commercial beekeepers may see
the availability of unregistered amitraz dry up, and perhaps even a
shortage of the two more-expensive registered products.
That's why I had asked the EPA to confirm my interpretation of FIFRA that
they had no justification to restrict beekeeper use of generic oxalic
acid, formic acid, or thymol, since the Agency had already determined that
their application in beehives posed no "unreasonable risk to the
environment." They subsequently confirmed in their Advisory that they were
not restricting such "own use."
I've been getting questions from beekeepers across the Country about the
legality of using generic "natural" substances for mite control, and can
only say that it is currently up to each State Lead Agency to tell them.
And in my own state of California, it is still illegal to apply any form of
oxalic acid to a hive for mite control.
The EPA Advisory left a number of questions, which I submitted to the
Agency (
https://scientificbeekeeping.com/scibeeimages/2024-Response-to-EPA.docx ).
They did not to reply to me, and the ABF and AHPA declined my request for
them to sign on. Our interface representative at the USDA also was unable
to get an answer for me.
Instead, the EPA scheduled a Zoom meeting with the leaders of the
organizations (excluding me from this meeting). A rep of the EPA told me
that "we are looking to the industry associations to consolidate any
questions/feedback they are hearing from the industry and provide input on
any potential next steps." So it will be up to the leaders of our national
associations to do so, and to let us know the answers.
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
530 277 4450
ScientificBeekeeping.com
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