How to Reduce Bee Poisoning from Pesticides
Louisa Hooven, Ramesh R. Sagili, Erik Johansen
An overview of how a variety of wild and managed bees and their pollination activities are affected by pesticide application. Provides guidelines for how beekeepers, growers, and pesticide applicators can work together to prevent bee poisoning.
Although this publication is primarily about managed bees like honey bees, all bees can be affected by pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and insecticides.
Causes of bee poisoning in the Pacific Northwest and California
- Highly toxic insecticides with residual toxicity longer than 8 hours are responsible for most of the bee poisoning incidents reported on the West Coast, primarily those in the following chemical families:
- Organophosphates (such as acephate, azinphosmethyl, chlorpyrifos, diazinon, dimethoate, malathion, and methamidophos)
- N-methyl carbamates (such as carbaryl)
- Neonicotinoids (such as clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam)
- Pyrethroids (such as deltamethrin, cyfluthrin and lambda-cyhalothrin). Most bee poisoning incidents occur when:
- Insecticides are applied when bees are foraging
- Insecticides are applied to bee-pollinated crops during bloom
- Insecticides are applied to blooming weeds in orchards or field margins
- Insecticides drift onto blooming plants adjacent to the target crop
- Bees collect insecticide-contaminated pollen (such as corn), nectar (such as cotton or mint), or other materials from treated crops that do not require bee pollination
- Bees collect insecticide-contaminated nectar from plants treated with systemic pesticides
- Bees collect insecticide-contaminated nesting materials, such as leaf pieces collected by alfalfa leaf cutting bees
- Bees collect insecticide-contaminated water (from drip tape or chemigation, for example)
- Beekeepers and growers do not adequately communicate
About 77% of all bees are ground-nesting bees.
Be aware that soil fumigants will kill ground-nesting bees, even when they are dormant.
Get these apps to use while you are shopping at a garden center:
Apple App
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/reduce-bee-poisoning-from/id1089761441?ls=1
Android App
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=edu.oregonstate.beesafety
Helpful publications regarding lawn care:
Practical Lawn Care for Western Oregon
https://catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu/ec1521
Fertilizing Lawns
https://catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu/sites/catalog/files/project/pdf/ec1278.pdf
https://extension.oregonstate.edu/crop-production/soil/abcs-npk-fertilizer-guide
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Western Monarch Population Closer to Extinction
Courtesy of The Xerces Society - By Emma Pelton & Stephanie McKnight on 19 January 2021
Photo Credit: Jonathan Coffin
"During the 24th Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count, nearly 100 volunteers donned their masks and practiced social distancing to carefully survey groves of trees on the California and Northern Baja coast for monarch butterflies. Despite the challenges of conducting field work during a pandemic, volunteers surveyed 246 sites, three more sites than last year. Unfortunately, to the surprise and dismay of many, only 1,914 monarchs were counted at all the sites. This is a shocking 99.9% decline since the 1980s.
The Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count has been done every year since 1997. It happens during the three-week period centered on Thanksgiving and is coordinated by the Xerces Society and Mia Monroe. It is the primary way that the western monarch population is assessed and has built up a body of data than demonstrates the long-term collapse of the monarch migration in western North America."
Read the full article HERE
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2021 Benton County Master Gardener Plant Sales
Dahlia tubers are now available.
"Shop our spring online sales safely and securely. Many plants at great prices for your garden! Proceeds fund Benton County gardening education programs."
More information can be found on the BCMGA site HERE
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Note: Our guidelines are tailored to the Willamette Valley of Oregon. We want blue orchard mason bee cocoons that you purchase from us to be used within the east to west boundaries of the Coastal Range to the Cascades. The northern boundary is the Portland/Columbia River areas and southern boundary is the Umpqua Valley area. Check with your county Extension agent if you live outside these areas.
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As always, thank you for supporting bees!
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Questions? Contact:
Ranee Webb - Email Ranee
Rich Little - Email Rich
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