Bees, Beekeepers Clobbered by Illegal Spraying!
              Barren Spring Predicted for Farmers, Gardeners

10-10-99   Conway, SC:    The environmental destruction of Hurricane Floyd
has now been augmented by the destruction of pollinators, one of our most
important environmental resources, during ongoing pesticide misuse by county
officials. Farmers who lost their crops this year from drought and flood,
will likely lose more next year from lack of pollination. Horry County has
many crops that require bee pollination, including strawberries, blueberries,
watermelons, cantaloupes,
and cucumbers. Gardeners will find their cucumbers curled and knotty, and
their melons small and tasteless from lack of bee visits to the blossoms.

    Malathion is being used in a massive assault against mosquitoes.
Unfortunately, when misused, malathion seems to cause more damage to bees
than to mosquitoes. In areas that were sprayed yesterday, mosquitoes were
still fierce, while bees were dead and dying. It is obvious that these
daytime applications are not only illegal, but ineffective as well.

   The malathion label prohibits application while bees are foraging in the
application area, but county sprayers seem to be getting away with ignoring
the label directions and spraying full-tilt while bees are out doing their
work. Bees foraged today from 9:45 AM to 6:20 PM. This was determined by
observations of bees carrying pollen to the hives, and/or by actual sightings
of bees on the flowers. But county mosquito control personnel refuse to
monitor the times that bees forage, which is necessary, if they are to comply
with the law.

     Sunday morning, after bees began foraging, L. W. Rabon, of Aynor, SC,
observed aerial applications over his home bee yard and other yards beginning
at  10:50 and repeated passes occurring for about an hour. Bees had
definitely begun foraging, so this was a clear violation of the malathion
label. He has serious damage to his bees, with many dead and dying bees at
the entrances of the hives. Beekeepers know that
many of the bees never make it back to the hives, so the damage that is seen
is only a part of the total.  I estimate Rabon's damage to be in excess of
$10,000 when all is said and done.

    Requests to the Department of Pesticide Regulation, the Attorney General
and the Governor have met with stonewalling so far.  What really hurts is
that Extension Apiary Specialist, Dr. Mike Hood, has been totally silent,
despite pleas for help for beekeepers, in the form of official monitoring of
forage times, and helping beekeepers determine when label violations are
occurring.  We would think that, of these, the extension bee man would be the
best advocate for bees and beekeepers.  Perhaps the list members could add
their pleas for him to GIVE US SOME HELP!    His address is [log in to unmask]
  The applications continue today, probably in violation....

    More info is available at a special web site created for this situation:
http://members.aol.com/gardenbees/

Dave Green    Hemingway, SC   USA
The Pollination Home Page:     http://www.pollinator.com
The Pollination Scene:   http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html

Jan's Sweetness and Light Shop    (Varietal Honeys and Beeswax Candles):
http://users.aol.com/SweetnessL/sweetlit.htm