Paul said:

> So although Assail may be applied during bloom, 
> it cannot be applied when bees are actively foraging. 

Hey! There's a plan - make up a term that has no 
meaning to excuse the criminal behavior of spraying 
during bloom.

Does "actively foraging" mean "right now", "today",
or "this week"? The problem is that different plants
put out nectar and different times of day, and growers
are famous for not knowing this. How many of us have
gotten the phone call where the grower claims that
your bees are not working his crop, only to admit
that he has not been looking at what you know to
be the appropriate time of day for his plants to
be producing nectar?


But now the lowest-level employee in a farming
operation, the one least likely to even read English,
is being held responsible for either:

a) Doing his job as ordered, and thus keeping his job

b) Declining to spray because he saw bees on blooms.

Yeah, that'll work.

This, of course assumes that he can puzzle out the
wording of the label, which is made difficult by
design for even native English speakers, and is
utterly impossible to fathom for anyone with even 
a tiny smattering of entomology education or the 
slightest familiarity with bees.

That exact wording is exactly the same unrepentant word 
game that Cerexagri, maker of Assail, has played for years.  
I addressed this in the June 2007 Bee Culture:

"...it shows how laws requiring 
warnings intended to protect bees 
have been twisted by pesticide 
ad men into phrases like:

'You can apply AssailR at any time 
during the season, even during bloom 
(when bees are not active).'

Is this advice to fire poison at whim 
during bloom? It seems to imply the 
impossible - that bees will somehow 
not be 'active' during bloom! The 
misleading wording cynically subverts 
laws protecting pollinators."

http://bee-quick.com/reprints/serial_killer.pdf


So while the label may carefully dance around the 
language with meaningless nonsense terms like
"actively foraging", the ads for the product 
are what prove the criminal intent of this 
company.

As soon as we have an administration in office
that will not "Actively Frustrate" the EPA, this
sort of criminal behavior will stop.  Right 
now, we have an administration that would 
rather issue EPA permits to drill for oil 
in your beeyard than enforce any EPA 
environmental or safety regulation.

And this company now exports its criminal
behavior to Chile.

But there is no such thing as "actively foraging",
even if the farmer might be expected to care to
notice it happening.  

There is only bloom, and any/all blooms must be
considered as being foraged, as the foraging is 
exactly what the blooms provoke and encourage.

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