> I have to ask: what about all the other insects - who
> is going to protect them? It seems to me that until we 
> are able to get definitive answers that most, if not all, 
> can accept, then we have a duty to suspend the use of 
> these products on the precautionary principle.

Chris, other pollinating insects are abundant in and 
around crops in the upper Midwest USA that are grown from
neonicotinoid treated seed. Sometimes in outbreak
numbers. Example of a Painted Lady butterfly outbreak
in the Waterloo, Iowa area:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/iowac.jpg
Iowa is a state where around 40% of the entire landmass is
covered with GMO corn that is grown from mostly
neonicotinoid treated seed. Another 30% of Iowa's landmass
is covered with GMO soybeans. Last summer the orange
sulfur butterfly was so abundant in Iowa the Sioux City
Iowa newspaper did an article about them in August:
http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/article_5e9bba43-8aa5-5d20-bcb3-d42399b
847be.html
Excerpt: "SIOUX CITY -- Anyone who has driven along
Siouxland's rural roads and highways lately has seen
the millions if powder-yellow butterflies fluttering low
above the ditch weeds and in nearby bean fields and
grasslands, seemingly as far as the eye can see."

Flowering weeds like milkweed that grow along the GMO
crop margins still produce lots of seed pods which shows
pollination is still good:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/pods.jpg

I was in the farm town of Bird Island, Minnesota last 
August in the heart of 'Poncho (clothinaidin) Country' 
and witnessed spectacular numbers of monarch butterflies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4e3S2sm13g
These butterflies breed on milkweed plants that grow
next to the corn fields that were grown mostly from
neonicotinoid treated seed:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/trumb.jpg
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/baleh.jpg

I have lots of honeybee, bumblebee, beetle, frog and bird
photos from 'Poncho Country' as well.  

Paul Cherubini
El Dorado, Calif.

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