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City promoting ‘bee safe’ pesticide use

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The city of Del Mar is trying to boost one resident’s effort to prevent the loss of honeybees by curbing the use of pesticides, especially on flowering plants.

When Janet Wilson came home from a trip recently, she was devastated to learn that thousands of bees in a hive she started earlier this year had died.

The bees appear to have been poisoned by improperly used pesticide, possibly on a flowering plant somewhere near her home. It’s a common problem that is decimating domesticated honey bees.

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Now, Wilson and Del Mar officials are trying to educate the public about the proper use of pesticides in home gardens to prevent bee poisonings in the future.

Video by Hilary Kearney of the effects of pesticides of bees.

“That’s the only goal, to educate my neighbors, because whoever sprayed (the pesticide) will probably spray it again,” Wilson said.

Wilson and her husband, Nigel Hook, had started keeping bees on the roof deck of their Del Mar home in the spring. They had two thriving hives with a total of about 60,000 bees. One of the hives is still struggling to recover from the poisoning in late June.

Shortly after the incident, Wilson went to a City Council meeting and asked city officials to help her spread the word.

Officials have posted a notice on the city’s website asking people to refrain from using pesticides on flowering plants and are working on an informational mailer that will be sent to all Del Mar residents.

Councilman Dwight Worden said he plans to show a video that was recorded of the dying bees at the council meeting next month and talk about the issue.

“When I first saw that video, it almost had me in tears,” Worden said. “What we can and should do is educate the public.”

Hilary Kearney, whose company Girl Next Door Honey helps people start hives and educates people about beekeeping, said pesticide bee poisoning is a common problem. She had been helping Wilson and her husband start their bee colony and was the first person Hook called when he came home and found the dead bees.

Kearney said it was immediately obvious what had happened.

“There’s only two things that can happen when you see that many dead bees in front of their hive,” she said. “One is they got attacked by another colony of bees and the other is pesticide poisoning.”

The condition of the bees that were still alive was another clue.

“In this case, I asked a couple of questions: Do you see any fighting bees? And he said, ‘no.’” Kearney said. “And then I asked: Are there any bees that are skipping, spinning in circles, can’t fly, disoriented? And he said, ‘yes.’ So that’s a big sign of pesticide poisoning.”

Both domesticated bees and wild bees are the main pollinators of much of the nation’s top fruit, nut and vegetable crops. The decline in pollinators, such as bees and butterflies, over the last two decades has been so severe that President Barack Obama issued a memorandum in 2014 creating a task force to study the problem.

According to recent studies, one of the leading causes of bee poisoning is pesticides that contain chemicals called neonicotinoids. Last year, both Lowes and Home Depot announced they will phase out the sale of products that contain those chemicals.

Kearney said one of the most important steps people can take is to read pesticide labels carefully and use them properly. Pesticides should be used at night so that the chemicals have time to dissipate and avoid using them on a flowering plant, she said.

“If you apply it to a flowering plant in the middle of the day, it doesn’t matter which pesticide you use you are going to poison a lot of pollinators,” Kearney said.

Wilson said she plans to continue her awareness campaign, including speaking to gardening clubs. She said she also plans to start a pesticide exchange campaign asking her neighbors to bring in old pesticide bottles and exchange them for organic pesticide. She said she would use the opportunity to provide people with information about “bee safe” pesticide use.

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