Photo Stories
(July
4, 2003) With
the summer heating up and the pesticide sprayers out in full force fighting
the never-ending battle against mosquitoes and lawn and agricultural pests,
we cringe at the thought of what these chemicals are doing our families
and neighbors. But there is another susceptible population that we need
to protect: bees and other animals that pollinate the plants that we and
other species eat. According to Ohio State University, over 75 commonly
used pesticides are highly or moderately toxic to bees. According to the
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), at least one-third
of agricultural crops depend on bees and other animals for pollination.
FAO describes the assumption that pollination is a "free ecological
service" provided by nature as "erroneous." Effective pollination
requires resources such as refuges of pristine natural vegetation and
suitable habitat for pollinators. Where these are reduced or lost pollinators
are becoming limiting and adaptive management practices are required to
sustain livelihoods. In fact, throughout the world, agricultural production
and agro-ecosystem diversity are threatened by declining populations of
pollinators, for example in 1994 in California, almond producers were
forced to import honey bees from other states to ensure that their crop
was pollinated. The major contributors to this are considered to be habitat
fragmentation, agricultural and industrial chemicals, parasites and diseases,
and the introduction of alien species.
In June 2001, Beyond
Pesticides Daily News reported that environmental biologist
Peter Kevan, a professor from the University of Guelph in Canada, discovered
that, due in part to pesticide use, there is a growing global scarcity
of bees and insects, the pollinators required to produce the world's food
supply. According to Dr. Kevan, the world's pollinator shortage is the
result of a series of complicated factors that go beyond a simple lack
of bees, but that is where the problem starts. "The changes in agricultural
styles, chemicals and pesticides have taken a tremendous toll," explains
Dr. Kevan. "And even if the pollinators survive, there are fewer
and fewer places for them to live. Most of their natural places - holes,
logs - have been cleaned up. Their natural habitat was gone a long time
ago."
French journalist Michel Dogna recently wrote about the situation of declining pollinators in Europe, blaming much of the problem on imidacloprid, manufactured by the Bayer Corporation and sold to farmers to coat the seeds and to protect them from certain diseases. According to Mr. Dogna, imidacloprid paralyzes the insects, which cannot join the hive and therefore die. If they do succeed, the honey that results from it is toxic. In less than three years, 450,000 hives were thus lost and the production of honey fell from 45,000 tons to 25,000 tons in France alone. In Alsace, the bee-keepers are regarded as disaster victims because of the Bayer products.
Gary Paul Nabhan, director of the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University and Co-author of The Forgotten Pollinators, puts the issue in perspective by stressing the importance of interactions and relationships between species in our environment. "We tend to think and grieve a lot about endangered species, but endangered interactions, endangered relationships, are just as important, but harder to visualize. They remind us that every single one of our lives is dependent on other lives around us."
According to Ohio State University, the following pesticides are highly toxic to bees: 2,4-D (Weed-B-Gone), abamectin (Zephyr), acephate (Orthene), azinphos-methyl (Guthion), bifenthrin (Capture), carbaryl (Sevin), carbosulfan (Advantage), chlormephos (Dotan), chlorpyrifos (Lorsban, Dursban), cyfluthrin (Baythroid), d-phenothrin (Sumithrin), demeton-s-methyl (Metasystox (i), (50-% Premix), diazinon (Spectracide), dichlorvos (DDVP), dicrotophos (Bibrin), dimethoate (Cygon, De-Fend), esfenvalerate (Asana XL), ethion (tech), (Ethanox), etrimfos (Ekamet), fenitrothion (Sumithion), fenpropathrin (Farmatox), fensulfothion (Dasanit), fenthion (Baytex), fenvalerate (DMSO), (Belmark), flucythrinate (Pay-Off), fonofos (Dyfonate), heptachlor (Fennotox), lindane (Lindane), malathion (Malathion 50, Malathion ULV), methamidophos (Monitor, Tamaron), methidathion (Supracide), methiocarb (Mesurol), methyl parathion (Penncap-M), mevinphos (Phosdrin), monocrotophos (Azodrin), naled (Dibrom), omethoate (Folimat), oxydemethon-methyl (Metasystox-R), oxydisulfoton (Disyston S), parathion (Bladan), permethrin (Ambush, Pounce), phosmet (Imidan), phosphamidon (Dimecron), propoxur (Baygon), pyrazophos (Afugan), resmethrin (Chrysron), tetrachlorvinphos (Gardona), and tralomethrin (Scout X-TRA). The following are moderately toxic: Acetochlor (Acenit), Aclonifen (Challenge), allethrin (Pynamin), alphacypermethrin (Fastac), ametryn(Evik), bromopropylate (Acarol), cinmethylin (Argold), crotoxyphos (Ciodrin, Decrotox), DCPA (Dacthal), diphenamid (Dymid), disulfoton (DiSyston, Ekanon), endosulfan (Thiodan), endrin (Hexadrin), ethoprop (Mocap), flufenoxuron (Cascade), fluvalinate (tau-fluvalinate), (Mavrik, Spur), formetanate hydrochloride (Carzol), mancozeb (Manzate, Dithane, Fore), methanearsonic acid (MAA), neburon (Granurex, Propuron), pebulate (Tillam), phorate (Geomet, Thimet), pirimiphos-methyl (Acetellic), sethoxydim (Poast), sulfosate (Touchdown), terbufos (Counter), thiocyclam hydrogen oxalate (Evisect), thiodicarb (Larvin, Nivral), and triforine (Denarin, Funginex).
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