A lovely lady sent in a couple of books for us to read, it was quite an eye opener for me and I thought that someone out there may be interested to in what the Bayer cropscience group are making these days.

This is a direct excert from the book ‘The year of the bumblebee’ by Rosemary Mason & Palle Uhd Jepsen, published by blurb.com having read the book and enjoyed it immensely, I pass the information on to you. It gives a detailed and wonderful view and account of these creatures; it would be the beginning of the end to see our natural workers the bees and insects being destroyed by multinational pesticides for the sake of more profit, more income for the already extremely rich; and yes, less for you and I the ordinary folk who realise that from hard work comes great joy. All it takes is a little more caring, realising that this world is meant for us all.

The new generation of pesticides. Probably more dangerous than DDT & dieldrin namely neonicotinoids being sold and made by Bayer CropScience. This is being marketed under many different names, but their active ingredients are the same, imidacloprid (IMD), clothianidin and thiacloprid. These chemicals are neurotoxins and exert their effects by blocking certain mechanisms of neurotransmission in the adult insect or in the larvae. Since the compounds are designed to interfere with nerve tansmission in invertebrates, it means that they are non-selective. They bind irreversibley to receptors in the insects central nervous system and repeated small doses are cumulative. Bayer admits that there are risks to non-target insects. The companys own information on one of thier imidacloprid products acting as a termite control says: “ they stop feeding and are unable to maintain their colonies”. Seeds treated with the chemicals have included oilseed rape, winter wheat, sugar beet, linseed and sunflowers. This novel ‘systemic’ treatment contaminates nectar and pollen of the target crops so that any insect that feeds on the plants will take in some chemical. There is now evidence that the chemicals continue to build up in the environment. What makes them even more dangerous is that they are broken down into active (also water-soluble) products which are easily washed into the groundwater. A new book by Henk Tennekes, a Dutch toxicologist, shows contamination of Dutch surface water with imidacloprid and suggests this may be indirectly associated with recent declines in insect-feeding birds. Other research from Europe and the US suggests that the use of neonicotinoid pesticides may beone of a number of factors contributing to Colony Collapse Disorder and the decline inHoney bee populations. In some countries they are sufficiently convinced that these pesticlides are banned on the precautionary principle, yet we in the UK continue to use them.

Another interesting book is:

‘The systemic insecticides: a disaster in the making’ Author Dr. Henk Tennekes. Produced by Weevers Walburg Communicatie, Zutphen.

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