Ted Hancock wrote: >The new biopesticide spinosad, which is widely marketed and approved as an organic insecticide, rapidly killed bumble bee colonies at elevated doses and impaired foraging ability at realistic exposure rates. I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but it appears that "Organic Gardners" may be offering their own hazards to bees: * * * Spinosad: An Insecticide to Make Organic Gardeners Smile By Lynn Rawe County Extension Agent-Horticulture Texas Cooperative Extension in Bexar County Still looking for an environmentally-friendly insecticide that won't harm beneficial insects, but still sticks it to pesky pests? You may need to look no further. Spinosad (pronounced spin OH sid) is a relatively new organic insecticide that quickly and safely controls a variety of caterpillar, beetle and thrips pests. Spinosad is especially effective on caterpillars and thrips. If you're a flower gardener, your ears should perk up on this one. Thrips and caterpillars are the two most bothersome pest groups on annual and perennial flowers. Perhaps the best thing about products containing spinosad is the safety factor for use around people, animals, and beneficial insects. Spinosad is safe even to use around adult butterflies and many insect predators and parasites. * * * Safety: Has a "Caution" signal word, which implies reduced risk to applicators and workers. Studies on spinosad show very low impact to mammals, the environment, birds and predatory beneficials. However, spinosad may be toxic to bees. (honey bee LC50 = 11.5 ppm) Applications to areas where bees are actively foraging should be avoided. Dow AgroSciences LLC. Conserve SC InfoSheet. Indianapolis IN. * * * The topical acute activity of spinosad against honeybees places spinosad in the highly toxic to bees category of the EPA. Gary D. Thompson, Scott H. Hutchins and Thomas C. Sparks Dow AgroSciences LLC ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ******************************************************