I’m still reeling over news reports of a massive bee die-off at a Target parking lot in Oregon.
News reports are blaming the disastrous extermination of some 25,000 bees (150 colonies), plus ladybugs and other insects, on an insecticide, Safari, used on trees in the store’s parking lot. The Oregoneon on Friday confirmed that Sarari was to blame.
“They were literally falling out of the trees,” Rich Hatfield, a conservation biologist with the nonprofit Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, is quoted saying over at Grist. “To our knowledge this is one of the largest documented bumblebee deaths in the Western U.S. It was heartbreaking to watch.”
The insecticide isn’t supposed to go on trees while they’re in bloom.
Grist points out that the misuse of the insecticide and kill off happened during National Pollinator Week.
Sigh.
See video from CBS here: “Massive bee die-off in Oregon city prompts investigation from wildlife experts“
Virtual Farmgirl 