Hi Jim,

It is hard to believe that feeding insects will die from a plant which has systemics in its system, and that the blossoms/nectar/pollen are unaffected by the chemical.

> I am a little bit more than skeptical.  We don't carry Merit as we are
> not a landscape pest control company.  I looked up the labels and MSDS
> from Bayer.  The wetable powder does in fact carry the standard
> warnings, however the granular does not.  Some times the things omitted
> against moths and butterflies,..  Hmm..
>
> So I'll pose my questions to the Ph.d.'s here.  If Imidaclopid is
> applied pre-bloom, would it be present in the nectar?  If it is present
> in the nectar, would it not do exactly what it was designed to do, and
> kill all the brood larva?  Am I wrong in assuming that if Imidaclopid
> found it's way into capped honey, that it would be long since broken
> down before harvest?

My experience with granular insecticides is a bitter one going back over 20 years. The local nurseries were heavily promoting a new snail bait and rose systemic by Bayer in the late 1980's/early 1900's, and my wife started using them. She liked the granular form and shaker top because it made them easy to use and they were very effective.

Towards the end of summer I noticed bees were attracted by the smell (rather distinct), and were gathering around the granules to stuff their pollen sacs. I asked her to water the granules in after sprinkling them around but that seemed to make things worse if not enough water was used. The damp granules would decompose into grains.

Until that year I had never lost a hive (no extremes to deal with in NorCal), but over winter 9 of 10 died, and the 10th was barely making it. There were lots of stores but only a handful of bees with scattered brood cells.

This happened a year or two before the county advised us to check hives for mites.

  - At the time I was convinced the Bayer granules were stored as pollen
    and the bees succumbed to poison while living off the hive supplies.

  - It could also be that the mites hit earlier than the warning about
    them, and took out the hives.

I am still inclined to blame the Bayer granules.

JP

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