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Bye bye bees

June 19, 2014   ·   0 Comments

Dear editor:

The Beeton Honey & Garden Festival was a wonderful event, in my view probably the best attended in it’s history which I’m sure actual numbers will bear out.

However, I was saddened to learn that in New Tecumseth this year we have lost approx 80 per cent of our bee population to pesticides, according to Beeton Bee producers George and Sharon Overton. The Overton’s can produce more than 30 tons of honey per year!

In August 2013 I wrote an article in the New Tecumseth Times warning against this problem with the knowledge that the culprit pesticide, neonicotinoids, had been banned in Europe and was being banned in the USA for its connection to the demise of the bee population. According to local bee producers, this lethal pesticide is now being used in our area and the result is as predicted.

The pesticide used is a derivative of nicotine the same smoking substance we are trying to eliminate from our bodies but a much more concentrated concoction, the base apparently, originally developed by the Germans as a lethal weapon in WWII! The chemical is inserted in the ground in pellet form and absorbed by the plant as it grows; any insect that tries to eat the plant dies. Unfortunately, the bees also collect the pollen from the flowers of certain crop vegetables which in the past helps pollinate the crop for farmers but now instead results in their deaths.

I believe our local farmers and agricultural societies should start asking their suppliers some hard questions on the content, cause and effect of these pesticides. If this is what it does to our bee population what is it doing to us?

Alan Masters, Beeton

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