Exterminators

An exterminator named Poncho kills America's bugs. According to a recently leaked Environmental Protection Agency (EPA ) memo, Poncho may have also killed our bees and with the passing of the bees could exterminate one third of all our crops for the next twenty years at a cost of $15 billion a year. Bayer corporation out of Germany manufactures Poncho (trade name) a nicotine-based insecticide Clothianidin (scientific name) for use on seeds for corn, canola, soy, sugar beets, sunflowers, and wheat. France, Italy, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom have already banned Poncho. Even Germany has banned the Bayer bug and bee exterminator.

Scientists called it Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).   A beekeeper finds a hive active with bees yesterday suddenly empty today. The bees simply fly away or so they thought. Over the last eight years scientists have looked at everything from viruses to mites as a possible explanation of CCD. However, beekeepers like Tom Theobald from Niwot Colorado suspected Clothianidin from the beginning.  In fact, the hives did have the queen and future progeny left inside.  Only worker bees that go to the field had disappeared which caused beekeepers to surmise that sudden disappearance probably meant sudden death away from the hive.

Beekeepers questioned the EPA back in 2003 about their approval of Clothianidin without requisite “chronic life cycle studies.” In spite of the beekeepers concerns EPA officials gave Bayer a conditional registration with a provision to complete life cycle studies during that first growing season of its use. At the end of the growing season the EPA granted Bayer a fifteen month extension. In November 2007 Bayer got final approval based on what the EPA called “sound science.” Unfortunately, the EPA refused to release the “sound science” studies to the American public. In August of 2008 the National Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit against the EPA alleging cover up of Clothianidin's effects on bee populations.

A memo recently leaked out of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), indicates that the EPA has known for some time the risks associated with Clothianidin's use.

Clothianidin's major risk concern is to non target insect (that is, honey bees). Clothianidin is a neonicotinoid insecticide that is both persistent and systemic. Acute toxicity studies to honey bees show that that Clothianidin is highly toxic on both a contact and an oral basis. Although EFED does not conduct RQ based risk assessments on non-target insects, information from standard tests and field studies, as well as the incident reports involving other neonicotinoid insecticides (e.g., imidacloprid) suggest the potential for long term toxic risk to honey bees and other beneficial insects. An incident in Germany already illustrated the toxicity of Clothianidin to honeybees when allowed to drift off-site from treated seed during planting.

(1.) Put pressure on the EPA. Farmers may have little choice for the upcoming season. They will probably have to buy genetically altered, pesticide soaked seeds from the Bayer monopoly. Hopefully, pressure will cause the EPA to ban Poncho next year. At the EPA write to:

Lisa P. Jackson

EPA Administrator

Ariel Rios Building, MC 1101A

1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 2004

Headquarters Phone Number 202-564-4700

General EPA Headquarters 202-272-0167

email: jackson.lisa@epa.go

(2) Look up your individual Congress representatives and write to them.

(3) Raise Bees