Update: The bees keep dying from a neonicotinoid pesticide

Sun: 04'Cancer
Moon: 04'Aquarius
Waning Gibbous

Update on the Oregon bee kill-off, which I initially covered in my National Pollinator Week post earlier this month: lab tests confirm that the bees were in fact killed by the Safari pesticide used for aphid control on the linden trees around a Wilsonville, Oregon Target location.  Safari is a neonicotinoid pesticide known to be highly toxic to bees, and of a type banned by the European Union.  The bees have been dying since the spray on 15Jun, and estimates have doubled from the initial 25,000 bees dead to over 50,000. 

For more information....

Please note that it was unnecessary to spray the trees in the first place: Target had received no customer complaints about the aphids or the honeydew they produce, and it would not have taken a neurotoxic pesticide to kill them had they reached numbers which would have hazarded the trees.  Soapy water would have done just as well.

I think that pretty well lays to rest any controversy, anywhere in the world, that pesticide use is a large part of major bee die-offs.  I will be interested to see how the chemical giants (Monsanto, Bayer, Dow, DuPont, Syngenta) react to a solid confirmation that their products may indeed have a significant role in the worldwide Colony Collapse Disorder ("Bee-pocalypse"). 

I would also be interested in seeing how the Pagan community at large worldwide reacts to this news: most of us, it might be fair to say, consider ourselves to be stewards of the Nature we reverence.  This would be a good time to start walking the talk, if we haven't already at the individual level.

For my part, I am learning the basics of container gardening, specifically choosing strongly aromatic herbs that will attract bees and growing them organically, from organic seed - I will not feed the beast.  So far I have three lavenders, a basil, a mint, and a lemon tree sapling successfully started, with more lavender, basil, tomatoes, pomegranates and a mango to start when I have the time.