A garden center shelf. To determine if a pesticide contains a neonicotinoid, look at the ingredients: Imidacloprid, acetamiprid, dinotedfuran, clothianidin, thiacloprid and thiamethoxam are all neonicotinoids. Photo: Matthew Shepherd/The Xerces Society

I was looking at the pesticides at Lowes last week and noticed that they always put pictures of the “bad bugs” on the package, the fleas, the ticks, the ants….   These same pesticides, especially the neonicotinoids also kill our pollinators. As a local beekeeper, whose bees are working hard in gardens within a three mile range of their hives, I am asking you to please be careful with the pesticides you are using.  We have lost several colonies in the past few years due to “colony collapse”.  (There is a list of ingredients to look for above, under the picture of the pesticides.)   We need our pollinators!  Here’s a quote that has been attributed to Albert Einstein: “if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”   Einstein may or may not have said that but you get the idea!  And….no more honey! ~  Patty Read the rest of this entry