Pesticide Kill. Sheesh.

[George Fergusson]

Well I took a walk around my apiary this afternoon and noticed a reasonable number of dead and dying bees on the landing boards and on the ground in front of most of the hives. Not thousands of bees, but certainly hundreds affected. I was bummed. My hives aren't wiped out, but they've been impacted for sure.

To make a long story short, my neighbor is a vegetable farmer, about 1 mile away. He is growing large acreage of corn and squash as well as smaller amounts of other veggies. He wasn't around, but his tractor was, complete with spray rig on the back. Next to it was a jug of LARVIN (Thiodicarb), an insecticide. I'm pretty sure this is what killed my bees. It is toxic to bees but has a short residual period.

I've spoken to the farmer before- he's interested in pollination and we discussed the fact that my bees would be on his squash this summer. I've also taken over an abandoned hive in his back field, left there by another beekeeper. It still has bees in it, they've been on their own for a couple of years and look to be survivors. Anyways, I suspect he's just never thought about the impact his insecticide use would have on bees.

I'm going to go see him tomorrow and talk about what we can do about this problem. Of course, it's entirely possible it's some other (idiot) neighbor spraying his cucumbers or something, I don't know, but regardless, he's spraying so we need to talk. He's not about to stop spraying, and I'm not about to stop keeping bees so we'll have to work something out. I'm sure we will, but does anyone have any suggestions?

[amymcg]

Why don't you ask him to give you a call the day before he's going to spray. That would give you the opportunity to screen them in while he's spraying.

[George Fergusson]

That's the very least I can expect! He's very interested in having bees around for pollination, his squash crop in particular heavily depends on pollination and he wanted me to bring hives over. I told him that with my bees being only a mile away, that they'd be over there anyways. This incident pretty much proves that smile.gif

I don't know what else he's spraying, if anything. Thiodicarb is quite toxic to bees, but it's residual toxicity is supposedly less than 2 hours, there are a lot worse things he could be spraying.

Thanks Amy.

[BjornBee]

Have him realize that your bees are not the only thing being killed. 50% and more of any crop is done by natural pollinators(flies, wasps, solitary bees, etc.) These are being killed also. And no amount of honey bees for the crops you mention will make up for them. Protection of your bees and the natural pollinators means him changing the times of spraying. Spraying should be done early morning before the sun comes up. Or, preferrably at sundown. This allows the spray to dry and be less of an impact on flying pollination insects. The calmer evening breeze means a better cover for the sprayer. Many farmers do not do daytime spraying for this very reason.

He can also contact the county pesticide authority or his own pesticide consultant to find out if a less lethal chemical since bees are in the area.

He is directly costing himself money by potentially killing off not just your bees but natural pollinators. He is hurting his own pollination efforts and it is costing him money. I always go this route prior to any further discussions of liability and other matters that could get nasty. But he should know that liability can be assigned if damage occurrs after he has been properly notified of any harmful effects from his spraying.

[BULLSEYE BILL]

I registered my locations with the department of ag. If there is any pesticide killing of my bees I don't have to push the issue. Just drop a dime and they take over. They come and survey the losses, investigate the licensed applicators or neighbors that may be spraying in the area. They also check the weather conditions for the day of the loss to find the culprut. They also collect monetary compensation for you.

[George Fergusson]

>But he should know that liability can be assigned if damage occurrs after he has been properly notified of any harmful effects from his spraying.

Thanks Bjorn, this is just the type of ammunition I was looking for. I'm not going into this situation swinging, but it's nice to know what's what.

>I registered my locations with the department of ag.

Thanks Bullseye. I plan on talking with the state bee guy about this.

[cphilip]

another thing to discuss besides notification (which is mutualy benificial and freindly) is time of day. He is probably spraying when its comfortable to him and not nessicarily comfortable (or appropriate) for polinators to be less active. He probably will understand he needs to spray late in the day when he understands the activity of bees and the production of Nector or his crop. He sounds like he is in tune with it but just might not be thinking on the same wave length in that regard. Sounds like your dealing with a reasonable fellow. And probably, if approached correctly, a very adaptable ally.

[George Fergusson]

UPDATE: Well I left a message with Tony Jadczak, our State Bee Inspector, haven't heard back from him yet. The farmer in question wasn't home this morning so I stopped by and talked with the farmer's father who is also a farmer, about 2 miles further down the road. In addition to LARVIN, they're spraying LANNATE (Methomyl) which is really nasty compared to LARVIN,

>time of day

More important is the period of time the insecticide is dangerous to bees. LANNATE has a residual ranging from < 2 hours to > 1 day. It really doesn't matter if they spray the stuff at night if it still kills bees 24 hours later. The residual effect is closely tied to the LD50 of the stuff, typically, the less it takes to kill a bee, the longer the residual.

Stay tuned.