<Bees will gather and use the pollen from corn (Maize in the UK) . They
will also sup the 'guttation fluid'; the drops of sappy liquid that appear
on the leaves, which will contain any systemic treatments.>

I thought I read an article (ABJ maybe?) that demonstrated that bees didn't
use contaiminated guttation drops from corn, I haven't heard of any reports
of this killing bees to date.

<There are also other creatures in the food chain that may be affected,
earthworms for instance. They live on decaying vegetable matter and turn it
into more worms and more fertile soil; but birds etc eat them in quantity.
A single worm may not contain much systemic poison but hundreds of worms
eaten by birds and fed to their babies will add up. Bees, of course, are a
favourite food of many birds, from (in the UK) Blue Tits to Swallows and
Swifts and so they will get a cumulative dose.>

I was also under the impression that the neonics in question had extremely
low toxicity to noninsects, which is why they were supposedly safer.  Is
there a demonstrated toxicity to annelids?  Has it been looked at?

Jeremy
West Michigan

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