Dick Marron wrote:

> Milk is fed to babies. The chemical affects nerve transmission.

I am certainly no fan of neonicotinoids as my many postings on this
will confirm.  But to be fair, the chemical affects the neurotransmitter
in insects.  It is a different one in mammals.  That is why some tiny
amount (a debatable amount,  but less than 100 ppb) is deadly to
insects, but the residue level allowed in tomato paste is 1,000,000 ppb
which is 10,000 times (four orders of magnitude) greater (and I
assume the level allowed is far below a lethal level for pasta fans).

It is this relative non toxicity to mammals which makes the products
so popular with farmers (and usuable in flea collars ....).  But the
problem is that our bees ARE insects and the field products have been
formulated with very long resistance to breakdown so that they can
provide season long protection to the plants.  That has always been
the main concern of regulatory officials.   And I personally think it
is unacceptable to put pesticides on the fields that have half lives
greater than a year, and so are active in non target crops.

So, to go back to Peter's post which contained a quote by a Kentucky
entomologist saying they got 6 to 7 year control of hemlock woolly
adelgid with a single soil injection:  Bee's don't work hemlock.  But
they do work maple, and previous posts have suggested that imidacloprid is
going to be used on maple.

What does it do to the environment to have all invertebrate life (because 
the neurotoxin is also very toxic to earthworms,....) in the injection zone
affected, and presumably if the hemlock are toxic, to have all the plants
in the injection zone toxic for six to seven years.   And are they only 
going
to hand treat around the trees, or are they going to aerial foliar spray 
(which is much more common in forestry applications).  Then the whole forest 
will be toxic to invertebrates.

Stan 

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