Geonerd said:
Plutonium for bees! The stuff is fairly persistent in treated soil, so if you're going to use it, do so now.to Nuke the Aphids, and then discontinue some months before you anticipate blossoms. Even single-digit parts-per-billion in the pollen will slaughter any bees that come to pollinate your pods.
There's a big controversy over the stuff. It's been banned in several countries.
TrBee Huggers claim it should be completely banned, and Bayer - the manufacturer of one of the more popular varieties - conveniently argues that the risks are greatly over-rated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imidacloprid_effects_on_bees
Here's a dramatic example of how minute amounts of the stuff can affect bees. Farmers in adjacent fields have just planted seeds that are coated with a few milligrams of neonicitinoid. The insecticide is taken up by the plant as it grows and offers life-long (?) protection against many pests. As the corn seed rattle through the planting machine, tiny amounts of the coating are worn away and become airborne. This blows away, settles in trees up to miles away, and poisons the bees when they forage on the pollen.
god i cant resit.
first. its never been banned any any country as of my knowlage. its use has been mostly suspended pending a 5 year or so investigation. this is in several european countries.
imidicloprid is off patent,
bayer makes a small portion of the imidicloprid used in farm fields etc. bayer to my knowledge does not make seed coatings at all.
all bayer produces is household imidicloprid water emulsions at inflated prices.
your video, the one we discussed in that thread that guy got closed, forgot his name, but that video is of some asshole not handling his seeding equipment correctly.
imidicloprid seed treatments are absolutly deadly to insects, but almost all guidlines ive read extensivly caution against poor handling.
there are like 100 seed coating technologies. some are just bentonite clay, and others are a polymer coating. clay and other friable seed coatings have to be handled far far differently to that of the polymer coated seeds.
alot of seeding equipment uses pneumatic actuators, and or jets of air to agitate hoppers or drive miscellaneous processes. this type of equipment is ill suited for handling dust prone clay seed treatments. this has been known since like the early 2000's.
that farmer is an asshole.
imidicloprid, or for that matter any neonic that i know of will absolutly not protect a plant for the life of the crop. the seed treatment is good for maby 6-8 weeks. corn is something like a 4 month crop.
it does not persist for a long time, or at least by my definition of long.... in most soil conditions its likely to see a 21 day half life. it binds strongly to clays and mineral particles. it does not leach readily.
its not the contaminated pollen that is thought to ruin the bees, its the minute sub lethal doses of imidicloprid in the nectar that is thought to break their brains, and make them retarded.
however, that study that guy linked, the one from harvard that every one creamed their pants about, was bullshit, predicated on a level of imidicloprid in the nectar that has never been shown to exist. id of loved to talk about that in the closed thread, but alas screaming and hand waving won the day.
