My “ News Hog ” pamphlet runneth over with all kinds of pollinator - link up items . It make sentience , I theorize , because around this farm , they ’re starting to show themselves in full violence . ( The herb garden sounds beautiful justly now ! ) Rather than trying to smartly tie together all of these news items in a multi - page tome , I offer this workweek ’s blog entry as a round - up of all of the upright — and less good — news about pollinators :
1. Pollinator In Chief
Last year , President Obama make a Pollinator Health Task Force and tax them with creating a National Pollinator Health Strategy . They’vereleased that strategynow — all 58 pages of it!—outlining Union action to accomplish three overall goals :
These are big and undefined , but the scheme document goes into more detail about public - secret partnership , Union syllabus broken down by branch ( for example , the Department of Defense , USDA , Federal Emergency Management Agency , et cetera ) , research , educational programs and more . The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition put together a bettersummary of the reportthan I could hope to .
And , of class , there are group , such as theCenter for Biological Diversity , that say this scheme does n’t do enough to make unnecessary our dwindling pollinator populations .
2. Lowe’s Befriends Bees
abode - improvement gargantuan Lowe ’s says it willphase out the cut-rate sale of neonicotinoid pesticidesin its computer storage as alternatives become commercially uncommitted . The move is based on research that points to neonics as being potentially damaging to pollinator health . The wording of the declaration suggests that they ’re not polish off neonicotinoids from their shelf , rather waiting until there ’s an option to each item and only then supercede it within four years . It ’s a in effect move , for sure , but it ’s not the just move . Additionally , Lowe ’s will ask grower to not use neonics on “ bee attractive ” plants and will provide consumer and employee teaching on the topic .
Read the company ’s full2014 Social Responsibility Report . The neonicotinoid stuff is on page 27 .
3. Bees Are Hooked on Smoking
Neonicotinoid pesticides are derive from nicotine , that darned addictive substance find in tobacco plant heater . Just as people get hooked on nicotine , new researchshows bees do , too , lead them back to the ambrosia of plants coated with neonics again and again . The bees — please forgive me for this — get a buzz off the stuff . Just like people who are attracted to that feeling even though they ’re getting it from a harmful substance , bee in the survey returned to the nicotine - lace nectar .
4. White Nose Syndrome Heads West
White olfactory organ syndrome , the disease killing bats throughout the eastern U.S. , looks like it ’s coming to Oklahoma . WNS has never been detected in this State Department , butPerimyotis subflavus , the fungus that stimulate the disease , has been determine on three batsin the easterly part of Oklahoma .
bat are just as important to us as bees and butterflies . They are alsopollinators , and they help dilute insect - gadfly populations . Check out the spread head of WNS from its start in New York in 2006on this map .
5. Butterflies Have Arrived
Washington State University researchers foundthat vineyards with nearby , designedly planned innate habitat have three times the identification number of butterfly mintage and four times more butterflies than established vineyards . This finding makes sense , sure enough , but is a gracious bonus to the subject area , which originally specify out to boost the reducing of pesticide use in vineyards by draw in parasitic WASP with native plant . The study ’s generator points out that butterfly do n’t have an economic encroachment on vineyards , rather it ’s a positive thing to see their populations increase as a side - effect of preservation farming .
