As we celebrate the “Day of the Honey Bee,” the Wilderness Committee is calling on the provincial government to ban a dangerous class of pesticides called neonicotinoids.

Neonicotinoids are widely used in BC and across Canada on a variety of fruit and vegetable crops, including blueberries and corn. These pesticides have been directly implicated in the deaths of tens of millions of honey bees across the country.

The best way BC could honour our hard-working honey bees is to ban this extremely dangerous class of pesticides,” said Gwen Barlee, Policy Director with the Wilderness Committee. “Bees are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat, and we simply can’t play Russian roulette with these and other wild pollinators.”

The Europe Union heavily restricted the use of neonicotinoid pesticides in December of 2013 after finding that the systemic pesticide could not only directly kill honey bees but also causes very serious sub-lethal impacts. These impacts include impaired memory and learning, disorientation, reduced resistance to disease and reduced efficiency in foraging.

In the past couple of years, overwintering losses for honey bees in BC have ranged from 18 per cent to 27 per cent – well above normal winter mortality rates of 10 to 15 per cent. According to the BC Honey Producers Association, many producers in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley reported major losses in 2013, some reaching as high as 80 per cent.

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Photo: Honey Bee. John Flannery via Flickr.