Mention pesticides at any bee meeting, and there will be an immediate
flash of heat.  Many beekeepers would like to ban pesticides - that is, until
we need them ourselves for mite control.
 
    The heat certainly indicates that we have a problem, which many officials
deny.  I propose that we not let them deny it any more.
 
   But we cannot plunge in with the attitude that pesticides must be banned.
 Rather, we've got to see that pesticides are used properly.
 
   I have seen hundreds of bee kills.  Every last one of them resulted from
an insecticide applied in violation of label directions.  I have never seen
an exception.  So we are not talking about pesticide use here, we are talking
about pesticide MISuse.
 
   If you are going to get anywhere, you have to know what the law says, and
what violations lead to damages.  It is amazing how many beekeepers think the
bees died because a plane went over and sprayed the hives.  That is not going
to do significant damage to the bees.
 
   Damage occurs when bees pick up the poison droplets on their bodies as
they forage, or they get contaminated nectar and pollen from flowers that
they forage.
 
   Please get copies of the commonly used insecticides in your area, and get
up to date on what the labels say about bees.  You will note that they do not
all say the same thing.  Each label is specifically designed for the specific
pesticide.  Note that application NOT in compliance with label directions is
illegal.  Each label is the statement of the pesticide law for that
particular material.  You can get these labels from extension, and from farm
and garden stores.
 
   It is also a good idea to get cultural literature from extension on the
common crops grown in your area, especially if they are attractive to bees.
 You will then know what pesticides are recommended, and you know what labels
to get.
 
   You also may be surprised to see a lot of extension recommendations that
ignore bee protection directions as if they didn't exist; in fact some advise
use in situations where it would be a certainty of violation - recommendation
of misuse.  And some recommendations tell applicators how to circumvent
compliance - by notifying beekeepers, another recommendation of misuse.
 
   I am sending along another note indicating some common misreadings of the
labels, most of them pre-FIFRA.
 
   Why do so many of our officials think there is no problem?
 
1.  Some beekeepers don't recognize damage.  If a residual, long lasting
pesticide piles up dead young bees in front of the hive, it is perfectly
obvious, but many pesticides today act so quickly that bees drop in the
field, and do not make it back to the hive.  I have walked fields after an
application, and seen a dead bee or two on every square yard.  That amounts
to heavy losses at the hive, possibly the entire field force, but it may not
be obvious at all, back at the hive.
 
   You pretty much have to catch this damage as it happens. If you see an
application being made, and there is bloom in the application area which bees
are visiting, you may be witnessing a violation. You need to find out what
material is being applied, to know if there are label directions to protect
bees.  There are some materials like fungicides, antibiotics, growth
regulators, herbicides, defoliants, and biological insecticides that are NOT
hazardous to bees and therefore do not have label directions to protect bees.
 
2.  Some beekeepers don't see the damage until it is too old to report.  That
has often been the case with me, as my bees are spread over a very large
area, and I might not see any one hive for six weeks or sometimes even more.
 I have got to get to the hives more often to monitor better.
 
3.  Some beekeepers are scared of repercussions, so don't report damage.  Yes
it is very true.  You can lose bee locations, have vandalism, including
deliberate pesticide kills, suffer verbal abuse, etc.  Sometimes it takes
courage to stand up for what's right.  I am very careful that I don't give
out verbal abuse myself.  I stick to the subject, which is that illegal
pesticide use causes bee damage, and must be stopped. The law must be obeyed.
 If you can't hold your temper, you could do more damage than good.
 
4. Beekeepers have become cynical of non-responsive bureaucrats.
It becomes a circle.  The enforcement people refuse to enforce; beekeepers
get discouraged and fail to report:  PRESTO!  We have no problem!  Perfect
bureaucratic *solution*
 
   Well we are working on the bureaucrats (the public servants who absolutely
hate to serve the public).
 
    Some beekeepers (hereinafter known as whiners) will tell you what
terrible losses they have had from pesticides, but will not do anything about
it.
 
    I sometimes feel like a tiny tugboat trying to tow a great liner, to keep
it from going on the rocks. Of course it would help, if some other tugs also
hooked on.
 
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Dave Green,  PO Box 1215,  Hemingway, SC   29554