A bee visits one of my sunflowers.
If you’re an organic gardener, you don’t use neonics which we know are killing bees and damaging the environment. Or so you think.
But, if you are not buying organic seeds and organic plants, you very well may be poisoning bees right in your own back yard.
Eartheasy shares the latest information on neonics and on how these deadly herbicides and pesticides have slipped into just about every aspect of the farming and gardening world and the result is devastating.
For example, Marta Spivak, an entomologist and Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota, suggests that this could be the foundation for “…the problem of the Varroa destructor mite, which spread widely in the 1990’s. If a bee’s immune system is already compromised by even a low dose of neonics (for example, the concentration found if only the seed of a plant is treated) it can make it all the more difficult for the bee to recover when it encounters the dreaded mite.”
Eartheasy provides more information and more insights on their site. Check it out and find out how we might just be undermining the health and well-being of our bee friends and not even know it!
Grow So Easy Organic 
Excellent article, Pat! I wrote about bees a few weeks ago and one of the reasons they were on my mind was because I found a plant tag from last year in my garden that had written on it that the plant was proudly treated with neonicotinoids! I was horrified–I hadn’t noticed it when buying the plant. It was some big box retailer, I’m sure, an impulse buy, because I try to buy only organic or from nurseries that do not use that poison. Beware: read your plant tags and ASK!
Thanks love. I was shocked when I read that seeds could bring neoconics to your garden. I try to buy only organic too but your advice is solid – ask.