According to a study published in the June 2003 issue of “Conservation Biology,” there are 561 known butterfly species in the U.S. and Canada. Not only are these insects beautiful, they’re important pollinators and vital to the health of their natural habitats. You can encourage these gentle creatures to visit your yard by using easy-to-make butterfly food and feeders.

Butterfly Food and Nectar

• Think “rotten” when choosing butterfly food. Butterflies like a variety of food sources, especially over-ripe fruit and rotting vegetation. If you own an apple, plum, cherry or pear tree, allow fallen fruit to ferment on the ground to create a favorite feeding spot. Look in the quick-sale area of your grocer’s produce section, and you might even get the produce manager to donate one or two unsaleable pieces of fruit. Consider saving extra bananas in the freezer, which you can defrost and place in a feeder at any time.

  Make your own butterfly food by mixing a solution of 10 parts water to 1 part granulated sugar (use tablespoons or teaspoons depending on the size of your jar), boiling the mixture until the sugar is dissolved, then letting it cool. Extra solution can be stored in your refrigerator for up to a week. An alternative recipe is to cut up a dozen over-ripe bananas into chunks, add two cans of cheap beer, one or two bottles of molasses, and a pound of brown sugar and let it ferment for about a week. The easiest recipe of all is to save any overripe fruit, add a squirt of honey, blend it coarsely in a blender, then divide the mixture into freezer containers.

Butterfly Feeders

• Take a ceramic or glass pie plate, plastic or terra cotta plant saucer—or any dish with a sloping rim—and suspend the plate with flower pot hangers or a macrame-style holder made from household twine. Decorate around the twine with the stems of silk or plastic flowers to make it visually appealing to butterflies, and hang the feeder from the bough of a shady tree, before adding butterfly food. Replace food if it dries out or becomes moldy. Place brightly colored yellow and orange kitchen scouring pads in the dish with the liquid butterfly food solution. You’ll attract butterflies and give them a resting place while they drink.

  Making a jar feeder. Use any small glass jar that has a tight-fitting lid. Punch a small hole in the lid of the jar using a small nail and a hammer, then cut a portion of a sponge and pull it through the small hole, making sure it fits tightly. Soak the sponge with a sugar-water solution, and fill the jar with the solution as well. Use string to tie around the jar to make a hanger, then hang the jar with the sugar water upside-down so that the butterflies can feed on the juice from the sponge.

(Source)

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The June 17th Wilsonville Oregon incident resulted in over 50,000 dead bumble bees, honey bees and other pollinators. The bees literally dropped dead while feeding on the blooms of flowering Linden trees in a Target parking lot, after the pesticide “Safari” was sprayed on the blooming trees. This catastrophic event was a grim reminder of the devastating consequences of the use of deadly poisons by humans in their attempts to control nature.

Then, on June 26th, it was reported in the Ontario, Canada Post that local beekeeper David Schuit had lost nearly 40 million bees at his family’s bee yard and hives in Elmwood, Ontario. A local organic farmer and apiarist, Schuit raises and breeds buckfast honeybees for pollination and honey production. This was the second year a massive sudden death of his bees had occurred; both times within weeks of the planting of chemically treated seed corn crops in his region.

Shortly after the first incident in 2012 an article in the Toronto Sun quoted, Schuit describing the condition of the bees:

“It killed the queens, it killed my drones, it killed my worker bees,” Schuit said.

“The workers, when they’re exposed to this chemical, it paralyzes the bees. They’re still living but they’re dying, and they’re in agony. The legs kicking, the tongue sticking out. Even the stinger sticks out and venom drops out. They just can’t control their bodies.”

This disturbing description of bees dying has been observed around the world from France to the U.S. Over the last decade beekeepers have faced accelerated losses of their bees in the wake of the expanding of the use and popularity of the class of pesticides introduced in the 1990’s known as neonicotinoids.

These pesticides, which manufacturers continue to claim are ‘not the culprit’ in the massive bee die offs, have now been linked to additional, even more serious effects from the Netherlands to California and throughout Canada and the Midwest United States.

The evidence is in and it’s far more condemning than anyone had imagined. Studies around the world have clear and distinct findings directly linking the persistent presence of neonicotinoids to serious environmental consequences. It turns out the bees are not the only ones in serious trouble.

A report published in January of 2013 issued by the American Bird Conservancy chronicles massive bird die offs in North America over the last decade, as well as a long list of failures in the permitting processes of these toxins. Co-authored by internationally renowned bird toxicologist Pierre Mineau and Cynthia Palmer, the Editor in Chief of the news service ‘Environmental Health News’, the report details specific findings of the toxicity of these chemicals to fish, invertebrates and birds. Here are just a few of the findings from the report:

“A single corn kernel coated with a neonicotinoid can kill a songbird.”

“Even a tiny grain of wheat or canola treated with the oldest neonicotinoid, Imidacloprid, can poison a bird.”

“As little as 1/10th of a corn seed per day during egg-laying season is all that is needed to affect reproduction with any of the neonicotinoids registered to date.”

The report, which addresses the issue of neonicotinoids in aquatic environments and their effects on bird species, notes in its synopsis: “This report reviews the effects on avian species and concludes that neonicotinoids are lethal to birds as well as to the aquatic systems on which they depend.”

In the alarming, specific and highly detailed report, the authors chronicle a complete failure on the part of the U.S. EPA to accurately or effectively assess the risks of these new chemicals. Providing evidence that not only did the EPA fail in their regulation and safety analysis of the chemicals, they also  ignored their own scientists recommendations, and continued to allow expansion of the approved uses and production of these chemicals.

Chemicals which were originally approved for specific applications in agriculture have now expanded to become retail products available to homeowners and lay-persons across the U.S. and around the world.

In its condemnation of this regulatory failure, the report cites two scientific studies documenting severely declining bird populations in North America.

“The North American regulatory system needs to act rather than continue to ignore evidence of widespread environmental damage. There is evidence that US regulators waited far too long to impose needed restrictions on the toxic insecticides responsible for millions of bird deaths per year (Mineau 2004) and that this is one of the more plausible reasons for the decline of grassland/farmland birds in North America (Mineau and Whiteside, 2013).”

The American Bird Conservancy report comes two years after Dutch toxicologist Dr. Henk Tennekes published the findings of his studies chronicling the long term persistent and lethal effects of Imidacloprid to insects and birds in the Netherlands.

A systemic and persistent neonicotinoid, Imidacloprid has been found by Dr. Tennekes to build up in waterways and natural aquatic environments, to persist in those areas and to spread throughout natural habitats connected by waterways.

According to his studies, all of the waterways of the Netherlands are now contaminated and the cumulative effects of this long term toxicity are decimating bird populations. It is persistent, cumulative and lethal in these environments over time resulting in mass die offs within these eco-systems.

The Rachel Carson Council review of Dr. Tennekes’ book, A Disaster in the Making states:

“Dr. Tennekes’ findings indicate that Imidacloprid (and possibly other neonicotinoid-type insecticides) can bind irreversibly to critical receptors in an insect’s nervous system. If these receptors are permanently blocked, the insecticide would not follow a typical dose-response curve. He provides evidence that long term low-level Imidacloprid exposure can lead to neurological problems and eventual death of insects.”

He has also found that this persistence has led to a drastic reduction of insect biomass in the Netherlands, affecting the food chain.

Clearly, the toxic effects of the chemicals on birds are a major issue and must be addressed. However, this new development of massive losses of native insect populations in the estuaries and waterways where all other creatures depend on them as a food source is a frightening result never before contemplated.

It is not hard to imagine then that any chemical which is introduced to an environment and becomes persistent in that environment, with lethal doses accumulating over time in insects, invertebrates, fish and birds, could also be responsible for the massive deaths of honey bees and other bee populations.

In fact, European studies have come to the conclusion that these chemicals impact the honeybees’ ability to forage and survive.

A Purdue University study published in the journal PLoS One in January of 2012 directly linked honeybee deaths to seed insecticide exposure (http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2012/120111KrupkeBees.html):

“Analyses of bees found dead in and around hives from several apiaries over two years in Indiana showed the presence of neonicotinoid insecticides, which are commonly used to coat corn and soybean seeds before planting. The research showed that those insecticides were present at high concentrations in waste talc that is exhausted from farm machinery during planting.

“The insecticides clothianiodin and thiamethoxam were also consistently found at low levels in soil – up to two years after treated seed was planted – on nearby dandelion flowers and in corn pollen gathered by the bees.”

Because these chemicals bind to receptors in the nervous systems of insects, birds and mammals, and because the manufacturers and scientists developing these chemicals were convinced that they could actually map them and ‘match them’ to specific insects, there has been a great expansion in their production.

In light of the current evidence, and massive environmental impact being seen as a result of their use, the questions now become, “How quickly can we assess what we have unleashed upon the earth, and can we undo the damage it has already caused? And, how can we prevent the damage it is continuing to cause and save these natural regions, watersheds and environments?”

The answers are not easily found when most of the world has not yet even admitted there is a problem, and the people in control are profiting so vastly from the production and application of these toxins that they are not interested in the deadly consequences of their products.

But it gets worse.

Another recent study conducted by Japanese researchers sought to “determine the effects of two distinct neonicotinoids, Acetamiprid (ACE) and Imidacloprid (IMI) on specific receptor sites, (nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs)) in mammalians”.

The study was designed to shed light on the effects of these systemic toxins on mammals, as their impact on insects is established, “but the question of their effects on mammals has never been studied”.

This statement alone should raise major alarm. When combined with the knowledge that neonicotinoid insecticides are now the most widely used chemicals in the world for insect control, and have moved from fields and farms into homes and gardens across the U.S. it becomes more than frightening.

The findings: The study is the first to show that “ACE, IMI, and nicotine exert similar excitatory effects on mammalian nAChRs at concentrations greater than 1 µM. Therefore, the neonicotinoids may adversely affect human health, especially the developing brain.”

So it looks as though these chemicals are not quite as species specific, or safe, as we were led to believe.

The method of action of neonicotinoids causes disruption of the communication transmission between neurons. Massive short term, or cumulative lower level long term exposure appears to cause a permanent blocking of the neuron receptors to acetylcholine. This means the function of the transmission and reception is tricked into a permanent ‘on’ signal.

The description by David Schuit of the condition of his dying bees correlates with such a situation. The nervous system is unable to ‘shut off’ the signaling leading to a kind of massive seizuring, paralysis and death.

To contemplate such a horrific result in insects is unpleasant at best. To consider the potential that this condition can be spread inter-species to invertebrates, fish and birds is worse. The idea that this can also occur in mammals and that the toxins are now prevalent throughout many regions of the world is almost unthinkable.

In Belgium, a review of research conducted from 1985 to 2011 from Belgium’s Catholic University of Louvain determined that Parkinson’s disease was linked to occupational exposure to pesticides in farmworkers.

While these chemicals are not all identical, and their actions may vary; the clear indications are that long term exposure, whether by insects, amphibians, birds or people can be lethal.

Suddenly these neonicotinoids don’t sound like “the safest insecticides in the world,” as they were touted to be over two decades ago when they were introduced.

The pattern of discovering, by way of terrible consequences, the true lethal nature of chemical toxic insecticides and pesticides is not new.

After being promoted as the greatest safest new weapon in the war on bugs, the chemicals have turned out to be what they started as: poisons.

Perhaps it is time for us to wake up and realize that using the services of those companies who excelled at chemical weaponry and warfare to provide the tools for raising our food is just a bad idea.

It is time to stop trying to solve our problems by poisoning the earth. Hopefully, it is not too late to make that choice.
###

Additional Sources:

OregonLive
Bee Deaths a Result of Pesticide ‘Safari’ Count upped to 50,000 Insects
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2013/06/pesticide_confirmed_in_bee_dea.html

Post, Ontario Canada
Bees dying by the millions
http://www.thepost.on.ca/2013/06/19/bees-dying-by-the-millions

Toronto Sun Article 2012:
http://www.torontosun.com/2012/06/08/beekeepers-blame-pesticides-for-bee-deaths

June 20th 2010 letter to the President requesting suspension of neonicotinoids.
Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides
http://www.pesticide.org/the-buzz/letter-to-the-white-house-urging-suspension-of-neonicotinoid-pesticides

American Bird Conservancy Report on Neonicotinoids
http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/policy/toxins/Neonic_FINAL.pdf

Source

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More than 25,000 bumblebees fall from Oregon sky due to insecticide poisoning

Shoppers at a local Target store in Wilsonville, Oregon, just outside of Portland were shocked recently to step outside the big box depot into a sea of already dead and dying bumblebees. As reported by KATU.com news, more than 25,000 dead bumblebees were found littered around the store’s parking lot during National Pollinator Week, a direct result of European Linden trees located in planters throughout the same parking lot having been sprayed with a highly toxic insecticide known as Safari.

European Linden trees produce luscious flowers that are rich in both nectar and pollen, which is a major draw for bumblebees and other pollinating bees during bloom season. And these same trees, which are plenteous in the Wilsonville Target’s parking lot, are a major destination for local bumblebees who feed on their nutrients and help pollinate other plants.

But the property manager of the strip mall where the Wilsonville Target is located apparently had other plans for these bees, as he or she reportedly ordered that all the trees be sprayed with an insecticide chemical known as Safari, even though it is currently bloom season. According to the information page created for Safari by its manufacturer, Valent Professional Products, Safari is a broad-spectrum insecticide that kills all sorts of insects, including bees.

“To our knowledge, this is one of the largest documented bumblebee deaths in the Western U.S.,” Rich Hatfield, a conservation biologist at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation (XSIC), is quoted as saying in a recent press release. “It was heartbreaking to watch. They were literally falling out of the trees.”

European Linden trees improperly sprayed with chemicals during pollination season

Hatfield and his colleagues collected bee samples from the Target parking lot on June 19, and later analyzed them to determine their cause of death. According to XSIC Executive Director Scott Hoffan Black, indiscriminate use of Safari was clearly to blame, as the chemical is never supposed to be sprayed during pollination season.

“It seems a landscape company did not follow label directions as [Safari] is not supposed to be sprayed during bloom,” Dan Hilburn, Director of Plant Programs at the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) is quoted as saying by RT.com. “We now assume this is the cause of the massive bee die-offs. Lots of bees still dying — almost all bumblebees.”

Reports indicate that ODA has also collected its own bee samples to test for pesticide exposure. ODA officials have since stated that they have never seen anything like this as far as bee deaths are concerned, and that the event is particularly ominous as it occurred during National Pollinator Week, a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) initiative that takes place annually from June 17-23.

“I’ve never encountered anything quite like [this] in 30 years in the business,” added Hilburn.

Some local residents claim bees were deliberately murdered

Meanwhile, many local residents are outraged about the incident. Even though ODA is in the process of determining the next appropriate course of action to protect the remaining bees, which may include covering the trees with nets or applying bee repellant, some in the community are demanding answers, including an explanation from the property manager about the sprayings.

“This was not a ‘die-off’; it was a mass murder,” commented Rozzell Medina on the KATU.com article. “If anyone is interested in helping others to organize an onsite memorial for these murdered bees in the next couple of weeks, please join the Facebook group Wilsonville Bees Memorial.”

Sources for this article include:

http://www.katu.com

http://www.valent.com/professional/products/safari/index.cfm

http://rt.com/usa/mass-death-bees-oregon-090/

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