The House approved a bill last week that would limit the use of a class of pesticides that are harmful to bees.
The bill, HB 205, would curtail home use of neonicotinoid pesticides — a relatively new class of insecticides related to nicotine — by classifying them as “restricted use” pesticides, meaning only licensed applicators could buy and use them. The bill exempts pet products and seeds treated with neonicotinoids, which are commonly used by farmers growing corn and soy. The pesticide is used to eliminate crop pests, as well as aphids, beetles, fleas, flies, cockroaches and other insects.
The Legislature has been considering restricting the use of neonicotinoids for years, to no avail. Originally developed in the 1980s, neonicotinoids have come under fire in recent years for their toxicity to bees.
“You may not realize it when you’re driving around and you collect all those insects on your window that, globally, we’re facing a decline (in insects),” said Rep. John Bartholomew, D-Hartland, who called HB 205 a “pollinator protection bill” while reporting it on the House floor. A recent analysis in the journal Biological Conservation found that more than 40 percent of insect species worldwide are “threatened with extinction.”
Vermont beekeepers lost an average of 53 percent of their hives last winter, according to data from the Bee Informed Partnership. The state’s native bees are not faring well either; researchers with the Vermont Center for Ecostudies and UVM’s Gund Institute completed a study this fall that found that almost half of the state’s bumble bees are extinct or in serious decline.
Samantha Alger, a research affiliate with UVM, said in an interview that neonicotinoids not only can be lethal to bees in high enough doses but also pose a risk from chronic exposure. “Sub-lethal” exposure to the pesticide can impact bees’ ability to forage for pollen and nectar and impact egg laying of queens, she said.
Use of certain neonicotinoids has been restricted in the European Union since 2013. Bartholomew said Vermont would be following in the steps of similar neonicotinoid restrictions in place in Connecticut and Maryland if HB 205 passes into law.
Frank Wong, senior regulatory affairs consultant for Bayer, a multinational chemical and pharmaceutical company, told the House Committee on Agriculture and Forestry last month there are a number of factors, such as climate change, varroa mites and habitat loss, more directly contributing to declining pollinator health than neonicotinoids. He added that the “Blockbuster chemistry” of neonicotinoids has allowed farmers and landscape managers to treat plants with significantly lower doses of pesticides and to replace older, more dangerous pesticides, like organophosphates.
Alger said that pesticide exposure can amplify negative effects of other factors contributing to bee decline by, for example, increasing the amount of a virus present.
Bill sponsor Rep. Chip Troiano, D-Stannard, who introduced a similar bill last year said he included the exemption for treated seeds after hearing concerns from farmers about the lack of availability and increased cost of untreated seeds. Home users generally do not have training in pesticide applications and therefore could be dousing plants with high doses of neonicotinoids, he said.
“You can just go to the hardware store – there’s this picture (of beautiful flowers) on the bottle, you know, and you pick that up,” he said in an interview last month. “And it’s deadly to bees.”
While Alger said the bill was a “step in the right direction,” she expressed some concerns about the exemption for treated seeds. Neonicotinoids are systemic, meaning the plants that sprout from treated seeds also contain the pesticides.
“The big issue with treated seeds is you can’t help it from being in the pollen,” she said.
Because the pesticides dissolve easily in water, the seed coating can leach into the soil and be taken up by plants, like nearby wildflowers, that bees might forage on, she added. Scientists have also called for additional research into the impact of neonicotinoid runoff on aquatic ecosystems.
The bill also makes changes to beekeeping regulations, such as requiring beekeepers to develop a varroa mite management plan and prohibiting the transport of hives into the state without a permit. New beekeepers would have to be certified by the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets.