Re: Bee's Where are they ?
What is lost here is that neonicotinoids are far less acutely toxic to humans than the chemicals that they replaced. When I started working in entomology, I was working to prove to farmers that they could replace products like Aldicarb, Furadan, and Phorate with the far less toxic neonicotinoids. We have largely moved from using chemicals that were toxic to humans at the milligram level to chemicals that are toxic at the gram level. The neonics are also much safer to non-target insects. The older insecticides would kill every insect in a field, while the newer neonics tend to only kill insects that are consuming the treated plants. For the applicator, the switch has been very welcome as he/she no longer has to wear coveralls, a respirator, and goggles to put out insecticide.
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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.
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