Dear Bee Folks:
 
    I found the first pesticide hit of the season last week, and as usual,
noted that the best hives sustained the worst damage.  They were out doing
the job, so they picked up the poison.  I suspect they were on mustard in a
cotton application area; the cotton is not yet in bloom.
 
    Bee kills from pesticide misuse are a reverse form of selective breeding,
always doing the worst damage to the vigorous, healthy bees that are out
visiting the (poisoned) flowers, while doing little harm to weak, sickly
hives, that the beekeeper has to continuously nurse to keep going.  I can't
help but wonder how many of our best bee strains have been knocked back or
eliminated, because of pesticide misuse.
 
   Throughout the year, I mark exceptionally good hives as potential
breeders.  If they can hold up the quality, and are still top grade by the
following spring, they qualify as breeders.  The cream of the cream gets to
be queen mothers, the rest are drone mothers.
 
   Pesticide hits screw up this system.  How can you rate hives, when the
best have lost their field force a couple times, or worse.
 
   Last year, there were at least hundreds, possibly thousands, of
applications on cotton, made in violation of bee protection directions. I
sustained a lot of loss.
 
    Cotton acreage has dramatically increased, and this year cotton is
everywhere.  I expect a lot more damage.  I have fewer hives than last year,
because of last season's losses, but they are in excellent shape.  At the end
of the spray season; if they are in the shape they were in last year at that
time, I am going to quit.
 
    Except for carpenter bees, which are dormant during cotton spraying, the
solitary bees and bumble bees that I normally see on curcurbits are rare or
absent entirely.  We are sustaining tremendous environmental damage from
these violations. Many of these forage similar hours as cotton, so they would
be afforded protection, if the label directions were followed.
 
   I have been asking Clemson Extension for several years to help applicators
comply with the label by teaching them how to monitor for foraging bees.
 They continue to ignore the bee protection directions on the labels when
they make pesticide recommendations.  They still actually encourage
applicators to circumvent label directions by telling them to notify
beekeepers (as if we COULD protect them!)
 
   This year I am in process of filing a civil rights claim against certain
individuals with decision making power for refusing to implement and enforce
label directions for bee protection.
 
   Last season I recorded a violation at the Clemson Extension Pee Dee
research station, of the type that causes much of our pesticide damage.
 Authorities admitted the violation, refused to enforce.  As far as I can
tell, no reforms have resulted.
 
   I have provided the cotton team with a program to correct the problem,
which I insist that they implement, or they will become defendants, as well.
 
   This includes a) evaluation of each insecticide recommended according to
the bee label directions.  Those which have directions indicating action by
direct contact only may be recommended for use during bloom, provided a
notice is given that applicators must ascertain prior to application that
bees are not foraging in the application area.  Those which indicate they
they also have residual effects, can be used prior to bloom, or after the end
of bloom, but not during the bloom, as the bees will be foraging during the
residual life of the pesticide.
 
    b) Applicators who spray cotton, which is highly attractive to bees
during bloom, must have a monitoring system to establish safe times to apply,
so as to be in compliance with label directions.
 
    Three methods of monitoring. 1) a hot line to Clemson research stations
at Pee Dee and Edisto, where monitor hives to be kept on cotton, and reports
obtainable as to when bees foraged the previous day.  2) monitoring by cotton
scouts,  trained and certified by Clemson Extension.  3) private monitoring
by monitor hives, by applicators who are trained to do so by Clemson
Extension.
 
   c) Censuses done each year of non-Apis bees foraging on cotton to evaluate
trends and quantify damage done to these pollinator populations
 
   Application on blooming cotton, without prior determination if the
material forbids application while bees are foraging, and prior determination
if bees are foraging, is evidence of WILLFUL misuse, should bees be actually
foraging at the time of application.
 
    Another SC beekeeper has sustained a heavy hit, which he believes is by
Penncap M (trademark) applied in a peach orchard with lush mustard bloom.  He
figures $1500 damage.
 
   I saw such an application two weeks ago in a peach orchard with blooming
mustard and foraging bees.  If it was an insecticide, (and it likely was) it
was almost certainly a violaton.  Unfortunately I was loaded with bees, and
could only stop for a minute.
 
   Our Clemson Extension people have paid little attention to orchard floor
management, to prevent label violatons and bee kills.
 
   When will this routine poisoning of our livestock end?  If any other
farmer had a tenth of the livestock poisoning that we endure each year, there
would be a flurry of attention, and the poisoners would be held accountable.
 
   It is hoped that the civil rights action will stimulate our stonewalling
bureaucrats to reform and bring the system into compliance with the Federal
Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act of 1972.
 
   Isn't 23 years time enough to implement a law that protects a vital
environmental resource?
 
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Dave Green     PO Box 1215,  Hemingway,  SC   29554