Thread: Help save European bees

Sent to me by my bee keeping association, Bob







Pesticides:






Syngenta asks EPA to raise tolerance level for 'bee-killing' chemical








By Tiffany Stecker, E&E reporter


Greenwire: Friday, September 5, 2014


A giant pesticide company is asking the U.S. government to increase the legal limit on bee-killing pesticides by a stunning


4000%.


Bees are already facing a massive global die-off. This could be a death sentence for millions more bees.


The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is accepting public input on the decision for the next 27 days. So we're urgently


working to organize beekeepers and the public to speak out against this devastating bee-killing proposal -- and we need your


help.


Bees fill a crucial ecological role as pollinators and are essential for agriculture, and are responsible for every third bite of




food we eat. In other words: No bees, no farms. No farms, no food. These pesticides are already banned in Europe. But


rather than phase them out for the sake of our bees, pesticide companies are suing the European Union to overturn the


ban. Now, they're petition the US government to massively increase the limits of pesticide residues - residues that are






actively harmful to bees, and can stay in the soil for up to a year.


Pesticide companies are already spending millions to get their way - to beat them we need to show the depth of public


opposition to this move.




So here’s the plan: First, we’ll use social media, our five million member email list, and online ads to alert the public about






this dangerous new threat. Then, we’ll organize beekeepers to speak out in the media to put pressure on the EPA to reject


the proposal.




But with less than a month to save the bees, we have to act fast. And since we don’t get a dime from corporations, we






count on you - our members - to provide the funding we need to win.


We know we can win this. A massive public campaign helped get these bee-killing pesticides temporarily banned in the EU,


and SumOfUs members are crowd-funding a legal intervention to protect the ban, too. This is just one battle in a larger fight -


but we have to win in the US, now, if we're going to win for the bees all around the world.


Thanks for all that you do,




Jon, Paul and the rest of the team at SumOfUs.org


For more information go to Syngenta asks EPA to raise tolerance level for 'bee-killing' chemical

Originally Posted by Chucaro

Bob, are the rainbow bee-eater Merops ornatus a problem up there?

Well, I have been told birds are a problem, and believe it or not, Butcher birds love bees, they catch them on the fly, just outside the hive. Could be a problem, we have a family of butcher birds here, I feed them worms from the garden. All ahead of me, Bob