ARE THE NEONICOTINOIDS YOU ARE USING IN YOUR GARDEN KILLING YOUR BEES?

The Xerces Society has just released the report, Are Neonicotinoids Killing Bees? A Review of Research into the Effects of Neonicotinoid Insecticides on Bees, with Recommendations for Action.

Photo credit: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2058430

According to a report from Penn State,  The neonicotinoids are a relatively new class of insecticides that impact the central nervous system of insects. They act either as contact insecticides or applied to plants, they are translocated throughout the plant tissue, making all parts of the plant toxic to pests that feed on the plants.

Photo credit: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/93716

Their use has increased dramatically over the past few years and they are now the most widely used group of insecticides in the US. Their uses include: seed treatments for corn, cotton, canola and sunflowers; foliar sprays of fruit, nut and coffee crops; granular, and liquid drench applications in turf, ornamentals, fruit crops and in forests.

A report by the National Potato Council states that it is used on more than half the potato crops in this country and that the pests they are trying to kill are starting to develop resistance already.

Neonicotinoid (so named because it is similar to nicotine) hit the market in the mid 1990s and were popular because they are absorbed into the treated plant and protect it from insects who suck its sap of chew on it.

They have been promoted as being safer for wildlife because they were less toxic to birds and mammals than previous classes of insecticides.  Neonicotinoids are sold at garden centers and agricultural supply stores, and millions of acres of farmlands, gardens and city yards have been treated.

That’s too bad for pollinating insects who are poisoned by the neonicotinoid present in nectar and pollen of treated plants.  That includes bees, butterflies, beetles and flies.  And Unfortunately the bees, butterflies and other pollinators don’t seem to be bouncing back as well as the Potato Beetle.

Some of the major findings of the Xeerces report include:

-  Several of these insecticides are highly toxic to honey bees and bumblebees.
-  Products approved for homeowners to use in gardens, lawns, and on ornamental trees have manufacturer-recommended application rates up to 120 times higher than rates approved for agricultural crops.

-  Many neonicotinoid pesticides that are sold to homeowners for use on lawns and gardens do not have any mention of the risks of these products to bees, and the label guidance for products used in agriculture is not always clear or consistent.

-  Neonicotinoid residues are found in pollen and nectar consumed by pollinators such as bees and butterflies. The residues can reach lethal concentrations in some situations.

-  Neonicotinoids can persist in soil for months or years after a single application. Measurable amounts of residues were found in woody plants up to six years after application.

-  Untreated plants may absorb chemical residues left over in the soil from the previous year.

-  There is no direct link demonstrated between neonicotinoids and the honey bee syndrome known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). However, recent research suggests that neonicotinoids may make honey bees more susceptible to parasites and pathogens, including the intestinal parasite Nosema, which has been implicated as one causative factor in CCD.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pondapple/5419305106/

If you want to avoid contaminating the world with neonicotinoids, here are some of the brand names it is sold under:

Actara, Platinum, Helix, Cruiser, Adage, Meridian, Centric, Flagship, Poncho, Titan, Clutch, Belay, Arena, Confidor, Merit, Admire, Ledgend, Pravado, Encore, Goucho, Premise, Assail, Intruder, Adjust and Calypso (This list was generated by The Senior Extension Associate at Penn State)

IRRIGATION AND GLOBAL WARMING

I’ve been thinking about irrigating as we plan to sink cisterns beside the barn to store rain water.  With precipitation starting to come in more intense episodes in the Midwest followed by long dry spells, it seems like the best idea.

This press release from UW-Madison writer Jill Sakai takes irrigation to the global level:

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/agrilifetoday/5011711079/

Irrigation increases global agricultural productivity by an amount roughly equivalent to the entire agricultural output of the U.S., according to a new University of Wisconsin-Madison study, according to Mutlu Ozdogan, a UW-Madison professor of forest and wildlife ecology and member of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.

OLD AND NEW INSECTS BUGGING WISCONSIN

Because it was my birthday yestersday, and I was making rather merry, I am sharing this fascinating press release from UW-Madison News by David Tenenbaum.

The mosquitoes are back, the Japanese beetlesare starting to devour the 300 species of plants they call “food,” and a flock of invasive insects are poised to make headlines in Wisconsin, says Phil Pellitteri of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Insect Diagnostic Lab.

Japanese beetles are exanding to new areas of Wisconsin. (Photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/blueridgekitties/4718524876/

Some “insect problems” are minor, says Pellitteri. People who pull out a spray can to kill millipedes may not realize that they may be annoying, but are not harmful.

The Japanese beetle, which attacks a wide range of cultivated plants, including roses, shrubs and grapes, is more serious.

“Japanese beetles are like a superstar in an amateur league,” says Pellitteri, due to their broad taste in host plants, their ability to fly half a mile, and their two-month feeding season.  ”Many insects are around for only a few weeks, so these have an impact on gardeners unlike anything else.”

But as Japanese beetles have expanded into new areas of Wisconsin, they have declined elsewhere.

An insect with even more potential for harm, the brown marmorated stink bug, may already be breeding in Wisconsin.

Last year this new invader hit New Jersey corn, soybeans, peaches, cherries, peppers and tomatoes hard, and it may already be breeding in Wisconsin. (photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/e_monk/5379784698/

“This is like a marriage of the multicolored Asian lady beetle to the Japanese beetle,” Pellitteri says. “Last year, the stink-bug population went crazy in New Jersey, causing significant damage in corn, soybean, peaches, cherries, peppers and tomato.”

While the Japanese beetle mainly attacks ornamental plants, the stink bug “hits fruits and vegetables, and it’s a nuisance as well. A feeding stink bug causes a white blemish on tomatoes and ruins the taste of a raspberry. It causes brown corky spots on apple, and people have concerns about cranberry. This one can cause major fruit loss,” Pellitteri laments.

Fruits are also threatened by the spotted-wing drosophila, which, unlike most fruitflies, attacks unripe fruit.

“The female has a saw-like egg laying device that can force growers to put on chemicals just before harvest, which is not where anybody wants to go,” Pellitteri says. “This is a big disappointment; has big potential for damage.”

Meanwhile, Lyme disease, transmitted by deer ticks, continues to expand in Wisconsin, with a 35 percent increase in human cases in 2010.

Deer ticks are tiny but do big damage. (photo credit PestControlRx.com)

“We’ve never had a decline in cases in the last dozen years,” says Pellitteri.

The emerald ash borer continues to threaten billions of ash trees in Wisconsin, Pellitteri says.

“In some pockets, the ash borer has grown a little bit. Kenosha now has dead trees, and the infestation in Vernon County has reached 20,000 acres, but I was pleasantly surprised last year that we did not have three or four new counties with the ash borer,” he says.

The ash borer is finally facing a counterattack, Pellitteri adds.  ”Ken Raffa in the UW-Madison entomology department, along with the Department of Natural Resources, has released three parasitic wasps against the emerald ash borer, although we don’t yet know whether they will effectively control this pest.”

Nature often tends to restore some form of balance in the long term. For example, the number of pestiferous multicolored Asian lady beetleshave begun to decline at some sites.

The emeral ash borere threatens billions of ash trees in Wisconsin. (photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/jlucier/4499299140/

“This is common with invasives, when they first get here, they have the biggest impact, and in time come into more reasonable balance” as predators and competitors adjust to it, says Pellitteri.

There is other good news from the insect world. Mosquitoes have generally been mild so far this year. The honeybee, one of more than 400 bee species that performs essential pollination services, seems to be defying the worst fears about colony collapse disorder, Pellitteri says.

“Normally we lose 30 percent of honeybee colonies over the winter, and most of the  problem here is due to winter weather and varroa mite, not colony collapse,” he says.

And 2011 is shaping up as a banner year for fireflies, Pellitteri adds. Because fireflies feed on millipedes and slugs, “We’d expect that having so much rain last year would have favored their prey, and that seems to have made this a good year for fireflies. I hear people say there are not as many fireflies as when they were kids, but in my memory, we don’t get many years like this one for fireflies.”

What insect bugs you most?

FUNERAL FLOWERS VS FARMERS MARKET FLOWERS

When you walk into a flower shop, does it smell like funerals to you?

It does to me.

(photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/damo1977/4398971930/

Whose funeral?

Nobody we know – just thousands of workers in places like Columbia and Kenya who labor long hours handling heavy bunches of blooms soaked in pesticides. Then those same workers go home to lakes and streams polluted by pesticide runoff  from the flower plantations, and lowered water tables in drought-prone places while the pretty flowers get all the water they need to grow fast and stay fresh.

Then those flowers are packed in refrigerated trucks and driven to refrigerated planes, then back to refrigerated trucks so we can pick up a cheery bouquet with our groceries.

Donald Pols, a campaigner with Amsterdam-based Milieu Defensie, says “a flower is basically a bundle of water and energy, and it is criminal that we import them just for our luxury from a drought-prone continent like Africa. Just for our luxury we are driving people further toward poverty and water shortages, and contributing to climate change.”

Farmers Market Flowers (photo caption: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rfduck/2877167586/sizes/l/in/photostream/

It doesn’t have to be that way.

(photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beautifulcataya/1296920708/

Your farmer’s market is bursting with blooms right now. And they probably cost less. They are certainly fresher.  They smell like summer and laughter.  They will brighten your life without darkening someone else’s.

Even better, get acquainted with your native flowers.

Plant them.

Give your local pollinators a thrill. Keep something blooming in your yard all growing season long. Bring in a few blossoms to brighten your interior.

Dry some for the winter.

Photograph your favorites and frame them.

Not all flowers smell like funerals.

What’s your favorite flower fix?

ENJOY YOUR VEGETABLES. AVOID E. COLI

Remember 2006 when suddenly everyone was afraid to eat spinach because there were reports of contaminated greens in a couple of taco restaurant chains.  It turned out to be contaminated iceberg lettuce that caused at least 276 cases of illness and 3 deaths.

How much good produce had to be thrown out because people were rejecting vegetables then – when they should have been boycotting their CAFO (concentrated animal feeding organizations)-grown meat.  Providing cheap meat is a very toxic process.

Our need for so much meat is poisoning us. (photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/toastforbrekkie/4483386068/ )

Here we go again.  This time in Germany where some infected vegetable matter, originally thought to come from sprouts, have killed 22 people and infected at least 2,200.

GROWING A REGIONAL FOOD ECONOMY

One of the workshops at the Midwest Organic Farming Conference we attended a few weeks ago was called “Creating a Regional Food Economy in Our Backyard.”

This is a topic Doug and I care deeply about, and it’s central to the plans we have for our future.

We’re lucky.  We live in the Driftless Area. This area is well-suited to small-scale agriculture because of its rough terrain, and many efforts are underway to build a diverse local food production network.

OOEY, GOOEY GLOMALIN, YOUR SOIL’S BEST FRIEND

Doug and I each attended different lectures on mycorrhizae by Jeff Lowenfels at the MOSES Midwest Organic Farming Conference a few weeks ago, and we both felt Lowenfels’ talks on mycrorrhizal fungi were some of the best info we got at the conference.  It’s sent me on a quest to learn more about them.

..Mushrooms are the flowers of fungus. (photo credit http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1585644

THE ROLLER/CRIMPER AND MY SUBTERRANEAN LIVESTOCK

8:30 a.m. Feb 25 and I was full up on organic oatmeal, organic raisins and organic milk, leaning forward in my seat at the first of two day’s worth of workshops  at the Midwest Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse.  I was learning about “Soil Building through Cover Cropping and Composting” by Jeff Moyer, Director of Farm Operations at Rodale Farm.

He started out by asking how many of us raise livestock.  A few hands went up.

“Wrong,” he said.

.."A nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself." Franklin D. Roosevelt

FEASTING AT THE WINTER FARMERS’ MARKET

Saturday January 8 was the first indoor Dane County Farmers’ Market of 2011, and more excitingly, the first Taste of the Market Breakfast of the New Year.

.. A typical Taste of the Market breakfast is prepared. (photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/69654165@N00/2253786603

As per usual, the serving line threatened to spill out into the 20 degree morning air. 

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN – Landreth’s Rural Register and Almanac

Lately, as part of my duties as co-editor of the Wisconsin Garden Journal,  I have been spending time in the Wisconsin State Historical Society carefully perusing the very fragile pages of almanacs over a century old.

Evidently, early Americans struggled with imported and often unreliable seed till a young Englishman, David Landreth, set up a Philadelphia seed store in 1784 and began growing his own seed, available at 5 cents a package, including postage.  George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Joseph Bonaparte (Napoleon’s brother) were among his customers.

The first Landreth’s Rural Register and Almanac was printed as a novelty, which afforded him  “an opportunity to come in closer communication with our customers than had previously existed.”  This publication doubled as a seed catalog — the kind of winter reading that  sustains  gardeners waiting through the dormant season to this day.