"In my opinion, they are being misleading when they say that the binding is
fully reversible.  In the lab, yes.  In nature???  Not likely, given that
the displacement kinetics are completely unnatural.  Those metabolites
aren't going to be found in a normal synapse, and there isn't anything else
except ACh in there to compete with [Imidacloprid]."

The only "binding" that can approach being irreversible is if covalent chemical bonds are formed.  Any other type of binding must be reversible according to the laws of thermodynamics.  Surely nature has evolved repairs to synapses where chemical reactions have wrecked the normal function.

At any rate, it is possible to determine exactly where pesticides bind.  All you have to do is feed pesticide labeled with some radioactive element, most commonly either carbon 14 or tritium.  You can then follow the radioactivity thru the body and see if it accumulates in any particular organs.  This is a routine experiment done as a normal required part of any registration package for mammals.  Publicly available information clearly shows no binding of neonics to neurons in mammals in vivo.  I am not aware of similar experiments with insects or honey bees at sublethal doses.  But, there is no reason at all such experiments could not be done and prove this hypothetical "irreversible" binding in vivo.  Probably no opponent to neonics would ever spend the money to do the experiment because they are seldom, if ever, at all interested in real facts.  They would much rather have the accusation than facts as the accusation is an effective fund raiser and the
 real business such organizations are in is fund raising.

Dick

" Any discovery made by the human mind can be explained in its essentials to the curious learner."  Professor Benjamin Schumacher talking about teaching quantum mechanics to non scientists.   "For every complex problem there is a solution which is simple, neat and wrong."  H. L. Mencken


          
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