>Not anguishing, just feeling very concerned that maybe we cannot release
powerful poisons into the environment without unwanted collateral damage.

Robin, you are absolutely correct--any and all pesticides exhibit
collateral damage, and neonics are no exception.

The question, however, is whether they are the cause of the overall
increase in colony mortality observed in the past decade.  The brief answer
is that in certain cases neonics have clearly injured or killed colonies,
and are having effects upon some species of native bees.  But the claim
that neonic seed treatments are a major contributing cause of overall
colony mortality simply doesn't hold up to ground truthing--there are
simply too many healthy colonies in areas of high neonic use to support
that claim.

Disclaimer:  I am not defending the current overuse of neonic seed
treatments--simply sharing ground truth observations.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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