On 7/18/08 3:14 PM, James Fischer at [log in to unmask] wrote:

> "Lawn products", regardless of intent, are not going to
> make any impact on any significant number of colonies,
> as the overwhelming bulk of hives never come anywhere
> near suburbia.  While a complete ban on all "lawn
> products" might make a few hobby beekeepers happy, it
> would do little else.  It would impact maybe 3% to 5%
> of US colonies in total, and a negligible percentage of
> the pollination and honey production, perhaps 1% of
> the total.

I was under the impression that imidacloprid (for example) was a component
of products used both in commercial crop management and domestic "lawn
care". As such, it's use would seem to quite definitely have an impact on
backyard and commercial beekeepers. How many other nics come into similar
categories?

A W.A.G. dataset based on 600 apiaries with 2500+ hives, 1400 with 400+
hives, 10,000 sideliners with 25+ hives and 200,000 backyards with 3+ hives
produces figures showing that the sideliner/backyarders could equal more
than 20% of all colony ownership in the US, with a significant portion of
that being well within the range of a domestic lawn-care pesticide user.

My data is years old. No doubt you have figures that show a more accurate
breakdown of who-owns-what-and-how-many. Look forward to seeing them in
support of your 3%-5% assessment.

I don't think bans are neccessarily to "keep people happy", as you curiously
put it. They become part of an environment that should be geared toward
management based on sustainability rather than the equivalent of "fishing by
hand grenade". 

****************************************************
* General Information About BEE-L is available at: *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm   *
****************************************************