Dr. Dave Fischer of Bayer CropScience said:

> [ASSAil is] 1000 times less toxic than the 
> nitroguanidines (imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, 
> etc.).  If I was a beekeeper, rather than 
> pressuring growers to use something else, 
> this is a product I would be encouraging 
> them to use.  You aren't going to find 
> many alternative insecticide treatments 
> safer to honey bees than ASSAIL.

It is not the pesticide itself that is 
objectionable, but instead, the way the maker 
plays fast and loose with the bee protection 
language to make it sound like there would be 
a time during bloom when bees would not be 
foraging, and confusing the matter with weasel 
words like "Actively Foraging", as is there
was such a thing as "inactive foraging" or a 
bloom NOT being foraged by one pollinator or 
another from dawn to well past dusk.


Even at 1/1000th the toxicity, the exposure
levels inherent in the practices openly
promoted in the ads (spraying during bloom!)
would perhaps be more than 1000 times that
of a pesticide applied in accordance with
both the letter and the spirit of the law.

Even if it could be shown that there was
minimal risk, we beekeepers still have to
make an example of them, as the attempt
to undermine the bee protection language
simply cannot be tolerated, no matter 
what is being peddled. Given that pesticide
criminals have been perfectly willing to 
try to claim that foraging bees were
TRESSPASSING by foraging areas where
pesticides are improperly applied, as they
did in the MN case, I see no reason to be 
even a little bit tolerant of anything less 
than strict compliance with bee protection 
language, both "in letter" and "in spirit".


For the paranoid, "Fischer" is really a very 
common name, and lots of us have PhDs.  Dave 
is not related to me.

Any similarity of our views in regard to bees 
and pesticides can be blamed on the consistent
bias that reality itself shows towards the 
arguments with data and facts behind them.

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