This is a post, I think of interest to the Bee List.  This is the latest in
a thread that occurred after I enquired about whether the Boll Weevil
Eradication Program applicators were monitoring for foraging bees, and
following the label directions.  If you want more of the thread, you can get
it from alt.agriculture.misc. It's called more of boll weevil eradication.
 
[log in to unmask]  (Gordon Couger) wrote:
 
>If I were a bee keeper I would develop a good working realation with
the spary applicators and give them a call frequently on what they
expect to spray in the near future. Went spraying starts give them
a call late in the afternoon on their targets for the next day and
keep the bees in the hive in those areas.
 
>If you aren't a horses ass about it they aren't likely to be either.
All applicators I have met are concerned about their public image and
incidental damage to other.
 
>Boll Weevil eradications programs should reduce the number of sprayings of
cotton when bees are in the cotton patch.
 
   YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING!
 
   (And you didn't read my letter either!)
 
      If you were a beekeeper, you wouldn't be proposing ridiculous ideas
like penning up bees in 95 degree weather, when cotton blooms
 
   You expect me to go out to a DOZEN different locations every day during
cotton bloom (some 75 or 100 miles apart), arriving before daybreak, confine
the bees and risk suffocating or overheating, so someone can spray in
violation of label instructions.  I cannot be in complicity on pesticide
misuse, and I resent the implication that I might be a horse's behind, if I
insist that the applicators obey the law.
 
   I hope you are not in a position where you are recommending pesticide use,
because, in this case you are substituting an unworkable pre-FIFRA "solution"
that circumvents compliance with pesticide labels, ie. you are recommending
pesticide misuse, itself a violation in most states.
 
   Hmph.  I've lost easily $100,000 from other people's illegal actions, and
I'm called names for insisting that they obey the law.  You are caught in a
pre-FIFRA time warp, and you need to step into the real world.
 
   The label directions indicate that it is the applicator's responsibility
to protect the bees, by not applying when bees are foraging. If he obeys this
law carefully, the bees are well protected; if he does not, they are not safe
anywhere.
 
   Your "solution" to avoid compliance with labels, by shifting the
protection to beekeepers, means that only pollinators with a human defender
will be protected, and this kind of advice from official sources is a seizure
of the beekeepers' (very limited) assets and labors.  Is this the official
line at Oklahoma State?
 
   The applicator has chosen to use an environmentally hazardous material,
and it is his job to do so in a manner which protects environmental
resources, including pollinators, by following label instructions.  Oklahoma
State should have informative materials for applicators (does it?) on how to
monitor to determine when bees are foraging in cotton. Application without
monitoring is certainly negligent, and possibly wilful (criminal).
 
   I understand that boll weevil program should reduce the total number of
sprays; however one spray in violation can take the profit entirely for the
season, and leave the beekeeper in a position of salvage and recovery of
losses.
 
   In areas where I was hit last year, I had to put two, and even in some
cases, three hives together in the fall, in order to make one hive that had a
chance of surviving the winter.
 
   I try very hard not to be a horse's behind, though I have met some
applicators who fit the description.  I stick closely to the law, which is
 the label directions for each material used.  I don't threaten, curse, or
abuse anyone, but some applicators sure have done this to me, usually after
they have poisoned my livestock).
 
   I will repost this to some other lists, because I think beekeepers,
especially Oklahoma beekeepers, and others interested in pesticides and
pesticide misuse, should be aware of what's going on with the cotton people
in their university.
 
   BTW, I am not anti-pesticides.  -Just MISused pesticides. -Use in
violation of label directions.
 
[log in to unmask]        Dave Green