Act quickly or bees will be gone
Garden-care giant Ortho should move faster than 2021 to stop putting bee-killing neonicotinoids in its products. By 2021, there might not be any bees alive!
The company also recently announced a faster move - by next year - vowing to remove neonicotinoids, or neonics for short, in three products for roses, flowers, trees and shrubs.
Garden store shelves currently are filled with products to kill things. Consumers should avoid products with these bee-killing ingredients: imadacloprid, clothianidin, acetamiprid, thiacloprid and thiamethoxam.
Other pesticides, such as fipronil and synthetic pyrethroids, harm bees and other insects, too. Some of these toxic chemicals can end up in our waterways.
Since moving several years ago to Barrington from rural Illinois, my husband and I noticed fewer honey bees, bumblebees, butterflies, some spider varieties, frogs and toads.
Earth Day is Friday, April 22. Let's make our planet more friendly for bees and other pollinators and creatures like birds whose diet includes insects.
Quick! Before they're gone.
Helen Sierra
Barrington