Silent Spring Revisited


Bees, Beekeepers Clobbered by Illegal Spraying!
              Barren Spring Predicted for Farmers, Gardeners

10-10-99   Conway, SC:    The environmental destruction of Hurricane Floyd 
has now been augmented by the destruction of pollinators, one of our most 
important environmental resources, during ongoing pesticide misuse by county 
officials. Farmers who lost their crops this year from drought and flood, 
will likely lose more next year from lack of pollination. Horry County has 
many crops that require bee pollination, including strawberries, blueberries, 
watermelons, cantaloupes,
and cucumbers. Gardeners will find their cucumbers curled and knotty, and 
their melons small and tasteless from lack of bee visits to the blossoms. 

    Malathion is being used in a massive assault against mosquitoes. 
Unfortunately, when misused, malathion seems to cause more damage to bees 
than to mosquitoes. In areas that were sprayed yesterday, mosquitoes were 
still fierce, while bees were dead and dying. It is obvious that these 
daytime applications are not only illegal, but ineffective as well.

   The malathion label prohibits application while bees are foraging in the 
application area, but county sprayers seem to be getting away with ignoring 
the label directions and spraying full-tilt while bees are out doing their 
work. Bees foraged today from 9:45 AM to 6:20 PM. This was determined by 
observations of bees carrying pollen to the hives, and/or by actual sightings 
of bees on the flowers. But county mosquito control personnel refuse to 
monitor the times that bees forage, which is necessary, if they are to comply 
with the law.

     Sunday morning, after bees began foraging, L. W. Rabon, of Aynor, SC, 
observed aerial applications over his home bee yard and other yards beginning 
at  10:50 and repeated passes occurring for about an hour. Bees had 
definitely begun foraging, so this was a clear violation of the malathion 
label. He has serious damage to his bees, with many dead and dying bees at 
the entrances of the hives. Beekeepers know that
many of the bees never make it back to the hives, so the damage that is seen 
is only a part of the total.  I estimate Rabon's damage to be in excess of 
$10,000 when all is said and done.

    Requests to the Department of Pesticide Regulation, the Attorney General 
and the Governor have met with stonewalling so far.  What really hurts is 
that Extension Apiary Specialist, Dr. Mike Hood, has been totally silent, 
despite pleas for help for beekeepers, in the form of official monitoring of 
forage times, and helping beekeepers determine when label violations are 
occurring.  We would think that, of these, the extension bee man would be the 
best advocate for bees and beekeepers.  Perhaps the list members could add 
their pleas for him to GIVE US SOME HELP!    His address is mhood@clemson.edu 
  The applications continue today, probably in violation....

    More info is available at a special web site created for this situation:
http://members.aol.com/gardenbees/

Dave Green    Hemingway, SC   USA
The Pollination Home Page:     http://www.pollinator.com
The Pollination Scene:   http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html

Jan's Sweetness and Light Shop    (Varietal Honeys and Beeswax Candles):
http://users.aol.com/SweetnessL/sweetlit.htm
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