Do You Love Butterflies and Bees? Learn the Surprising Truth About Pesticide Danger
How Dangerous Are Neonicotinoids?
Do you love butterflies? Their dainty, colorful wings and effortless floating from flower to flower? And the joyful buzzing of honeybees, hard at work collecting pollen and creating honey.
All these welcome creatures are part of the joy of gardening.
It’s spring, and I’m eager to add more flowers to my yard, attracting more bees and butterflies. But I’d heard that pesticides sprayed on young plants can remain in the plant forever, killing beneficial insects.
I’d read warnings that plants purchased from big box stores were hazardous for bees, but I’d never taken the time to find out the details.
However, with the arrival of spring planting season, I decided to dig a little deeper into the problem—before I dig holes for my new flowers.
I wondered:
How many food-producing crops depend on pollinators?
Do neonicotinoids affect all pollinators, including native bees and butterflies?
Are there alternatives to this pesticide?
How can we encourage pollinators?
Why do we need pollinating insects and animals?
Thirty-five percent of the world’s food crops and 75% of our flowering plants depend on animal pollinators to reproduce.
For instance, a vegetable like a beet doesn’t need to be pollinated to produce the edible part—but if we want more beets, it has to produce a flower that must be pollinated to create seeds.
Some scientists estimate that one out of every three bites of food we eat exists because of pollinators like bees, butterflies and moths, birds and bats, beetles, and other creatures.
Pollinators visit flowers searching for nectar and pollen, accidentally brushing against the flower’s reproductive parts, depositing pollen. The plant uses the pollen to produce a fruit or seed.
Pollinators Are in Trouble
You may have heard that bees are disappearing and bats are dying.
Habitat loss, disease, parasites, and pesticides have contributed to the decline of many species of pollinators. Many of us work to increase habitat, but we need to be mindful to avoid plants treated with neonics.
What are neonicotinoid insecticides, a.k.a. neonics, anyway?
The word neonicotinoid means ‘new nicotine-like. Like nicotine, the substance is neuro-toxic. The nursery industry uses these products to protect ornamental trees, shrubs, and flowers from sucking and chewing insects such as aphids, bugs, and beetles.
This chemical is more toxic to invertebrates, like insects than mammals and birds.
Growers use neonicotinoids because they are water-soluble and can be applied to the seeds, leaves, or soil. The insecticide remains in the pollen and nectar and can stay in the plant tissues for six years.
While it may not outright kill the bees, research shows it impacts the bees’ ability to forage, remember where flowers are located, and even find their way back home.
How can we avoid products containing neonics?
Read the labels. Imidacloprid, clothianidin, dinotefuran, and thiamethoxam are active ingredients in neonicotinoid compounds.
Other products such as flea treatments can contain these chemicals, too.
Keep your soil healthy, which will grow plants less attractive to bugs.
Accept a few insect holes. Remember that butterflies and beautiful moths were all once caterpillars that ate plants.
Support local wildland conservation projects that provide insect habitat.
Buy organic plants whenever possible. They are neonic-free.
Speak up. Ask your local nurseries if plants have been treated with these pesticides, and ask your local nursery to stop selling neonicotinoid products.
Look for tags on plants that say “neonic-free.”
Good news! Due to public pressure, Home Depot has stopped selling plants treated with neonics. In addition, the European Union has already banned several neonics.
Yes, I’m convinced. I’ll be looking for neonic-free plants from now on. I have not used chemical pesticides in my gardens for decades, so that’s easy.
I’m ready to look for plants on this great site where I can sort for pollinator-friendly native plants.
What are your favorite pollinator-attracting plants? And remember, bees and butterflies need habitat to live and breed, too.
Resources and references:
Pollinator conservation programs
Region-specific resources for North America
Crop production in the USA is frequently limited by a lack of pollinators
How Gardeners Can Help Pollinators
Free regional pollinator-friendly planting guides
Neonicotinoids disrupt memory, circadian behavior, and sleep