Massive die-offs of honeybees have taken place in Central Valley almond groves. While insecticides and fungicides aren’t harmful to bees on their own, an airborne mixture is lethal.
Source: Study: Pesticide Mixture the Culprit in Almond Grove Bee Die-Offs
This is not the best news article on the study, but it is the first one I could get to scan into my blog. (Let that be a note to news outlets who want so badly to have their advertising viewed but block fair use copy/ paste/ comments. Sheesh)
Anyway I believe that this is an important story because it brings up and illustrates a point that I have worried about for several years. We all know that medicines can interact and yet we do very, very little to study how the chemicals that we have designed to be toxic interact. Many people have commented that I tend to rail against pesticides (possibly too much) :-)
But here is a suggestion for individual homeowners; don’t use multiple types of pesticides. If one doesn’t work for you and you really want to do something for the environment– instead of buying a Prius, do this one simple thing– don’t let your mad desire for instant gratification run away with you; discontinue the first pesticide for several months to allow it to break down before starting to use a different type of toxin.
Or even better yet try to make sure of what you’re trying to kill. Hire one of these neighborhood kids who know all sorts of computers thingies. To set up a motion detector camera to video tape whatever is eating your garden. Wouldn’t that be fun :-)
Best to you all