As a growing body of research points to a link between colony collapse disorderliness and the class of pesticides known asneonicotinoids , a backyard gardener in Virginia has taken to the Internet in a grassroots travail to have Bayer ’s neonicotinoid pesticides take off the market .
Susan Mariner , who grew up working the garden with her father and grandmother , read the value of pollinators was impressed upon her from an early age .
“ My grandmother taught me that bees are ‘ our partners in the garden , ’ ” she think .
Today , Mariner has her own suburban backyard garden , where she and her children grow comestible crops , as well as what she call a “ Honey bee haven ” : a section plant with colorful wildflowers and other plants that attract native pollinator . In the retiring several years , she says , her favorite winged visitors have made few appearances in the garden .
“ I started watching bees as a immature child in my father ’s and my grannie ’s gardens and apple trees , which were awash in Honey bees when in bloom , ” she say . “ These day , when my children and I spend all day alfresco skirt by G of blooms in our garden , we are thrilled to see a exclusive Honey bee visit . ”
Mariner says the diminution in pollinators has change the path she and her neighbors garden . “ Because there are so few pollinators , in late years we have been forced to hand - cross-pollinate many of our flora , something which would have been unthinkable to my grandmother . Many of my gardening neighbors have stop growing plant that require insect pollination in all . ”
more and more , however , researchers are find out that the natural action of Mariner ’s other neighbor — those who are , in her words , “ unwittingly coating their properties in neonicotinoids to achieve a picture - perfect lawn”—may be contribute to a dearth of pollinators .
synthetical forms of nicotine , neonicotinoids roleplay on insects ’ nervous systems by bandage to nerve - cell receptors and interrupt nerves ’ abilities to charge normal signals . Eventually , these repeated misfires cause the nervous organization to give out and the insect to snuff it . Imidacloprid is the most coarse systematic pesticide in the neonicotinoid class ; it appears in a host of insecticide product formulated for veterinary manipulation ( as flea treatments ) , agrarian use of goods and services ( as both soil and foliar intervention and seed coatings ) and landscaping ( including product lines , such as Bayer Advanced , formulated for consumer purpose ) .
In January 2012 , an Italian inquiry team published a report in the journal Environmental Science & Technology report on increased mortality and neonicotinoid neurotoxicity among bees in hives located near arena where pesticide - coated seeds were sow . Whereas much of the enquiry on CCD and pesticides has focused on indirect exposure ( through pollen or ambrosia , for model ) , the Italian scientists theorize that bees were straight exposed to neonicotinoids via particulate issue released from seed drill . Less than three months subsequently , a paper in the diary Science reported on an 85 - percent reduction in output of raw queens in neonicotinoid - treat bumblebee hives . After reading about the subject field , Mariner felt compelled to take activity .
Mariner used Change.org , a loose petition - hosting website that harnesses societal media in the name of activism , to launcha petitioncalling for the Environmental Protection Agency to ban Bayer ’s neonicotinoid - based product . With each theme song , Change.org sends an email to the somebody or soul aim by the petition — in this instance , three key EPA administrators . Mariner ’s orison garnered a monolithic answer , boasting over 138,000 signatures as of April 26 , 2012 .
Mariner articulate she ’s thrilled with the receipt her prayer has received . “ I ’ve been extremely encouraged to see that once people learn that one - third of our food is pollenate by bees and that bee are in crisis , they are anxious to help and automatically begin launch the parole to others . ”
Within days of Mariner ’s petition go live , a team from the Harvard School of Public Health cover that they ’d gathered still more grounds of an imidacloprid - CCD inter-group communication . Over 23 weeks beginning in summertime 2010 , the researchers monitored bee in four dissimilar yard in Worcester County , Mass. Each yard had four bee hives treated with alter levels of imidacloprid , as well as one control bee hive . After 12 weeks of dosing , all the bees were live , but after 23 weeks , 15 of the 16 treat bee hives had died off , with the high - window pane bee hives perishing first . The Harvard written report will come along in June ’s Bulletin of Insectology .
“ The Harvard bailiwick is further evidence that neonicotinoids are a key factor in the decimation of our nation ’s bee population , ” Mariner says . “ There is now sufficient grounds of the link between neonicotinoids and CCD that the EPA needs to immediately freeze registration of neonicotinoids . With our bee universe in a countrywide freefall , the EPA ’s plan to act on neonicotinoids in 2013 is not acceptable . bee , and the many plants that depend on them , need protection now . ”
As Mariner go toward the finish of 150,000 request signees , she allege she ’s busy writing about bee ’ plight for several blogs and websites , taking interviews with medium electrical outlet , and give presentment on CCD . She ’s also encouraging fellow pollinator - lover to contact their congressional representatives .
“ In gain to keeping pressure on the EPA , it ’s critical that we begin pressuring Congress to use its inadvertence dominance to drive the EPA to act now , ” she says .
