Subject: Beekeepers and Hurricane Fran - Victims Again?

From: [email-masked] (Pollinator)
Date: 26 Sep 1996 10:49:13 -0400

Your bees came through the storm remarkably well?  The bees are
looking quite good, hanging out the front, sassy as can be?  There's lots
of goldenrod, with asters right behind, which were basically unaffected by
the storm?  Except for the plague of yellow jackets trying to rob the
bees, you are feeling pleased that the prospects look quite good, and at
least the storm hasn't hurt you too bad in the beekeeping realm?

    A secondary disaster may be in store for you and you MUST take some
forceful steps to avert it.  In a couple of weeks you may find your hives
changed into tiny, weak nucs, with only three or four frames of bees left,
too weak to go out and get their winter provisions (goldenrod & aster). 
They may have frames of chilled brood, because there are too few adult
bees to cover the brood on a cold night, and now they have to engage in
carrying out the dead, instead of productive work.  They may be too small
to make a decent cluster to insulate themselves against winter cold, and
the first cold spell will get the hive.  Or they may even have stored away
poisoned pollen to consume during the cold weather, when no fresh pollen
is available.

   This is exactly what happened to me after Hurricane Hugo. Massive
aerial applications were made, in violation of label directions, that
severely damaged my business, and nearly wiped out wild pollinators in
some areas. The times of application were set by guesswork, rather than
any actual observations of when bees were foraging. Many of the
applications were done on warm, sunny afternoons when bees were all over
goldenrod, and the bees just dropped.

   There is no question that the areas of North Carolina, South Carolina,
Virginia and Maryland, where Hurricane Fran and other storms have dropped
a lot of rain, are having mosquito problems.   But, insecticides used to
kill adult mosquitoes are also toxic to bees, and label directions forbid
application during the times bees are foraging.  Obedience to label
directions is required by law.

   The kicker is that the damage is so hard to prove afterwards, and it's
nearly impossible to collect any compensation for damage, even though it
was caused by an illegal act. Here in South Carolina, the enforcement
people are basically on the side of the applicators.  The enforcement is
part of Clemson University. The big corportations that donate to it, have
bought the best regulators money can buy.  The regulators try their best
to look the other way; they refuse to spot-check applicators; and we only
get action, when a violation practically kicks the regulators in the
teeth.

    This means that if you want any recourse, you've got to take
preventative action.  Don't wait until you get hit.  Even if you are hit,
the sprays used for mosquitoes tend to be quick acting, and most bees
never make it home.  There may be very few dead bees at the hives, to
collect for evidence.

    Get some fresh tapes for your camcorder and conduct a Beekeepers'
Neighborhood Watch.  Document any violations, as they happen.

   But first document the health and strength of your hives.  Pop the
covers, and show the bees covering ten frames and spilling over the sides.
 Open up a few and show that there are eight or nine frames of brood in
each one.  This will give a basis of comparison, if you do get hit.  Then,
you'll have the sad job of filming the difference.

   But bend your efforts to make sure that you don't get hit. And document
every step.  Find out who is doing applications in your area, and talk to
them.  Point out that it is a violation to apply while bees are foraging,
that there is a lot of goldenrod in bloom, and that bees WILL be foraging
on that goldenrod.  Offer to supply the applicator with a monitor hive so
that he can determine, for sure, the times that the bees are foraging.

   Always make clear that pesticide use is not the problem, MISUSE is the
problem. Applications made in compliance with label directions, will not
cause significant damage to the bees.

   A monitor hive is a hive placed on the type of forage that will be
within the application area.  The applicator can easily pull up to the
hive(s) and watch them from a closed vehicle.  Goldenrod pollen is
distinctive and easily spotted from this moderate and safe distance.  You
probably can set the hive somewhere right near the airport, so the
applicator need only take a couple minutes to see if the bees are still
working.

   It's likely that he will refuse.  But document that you offered.  Let
him know that you will be out with a camcorder, recording applications,
and he has nothing to worry about, if he KNOWS that bees are not foraging
at the time of application.

   He may try to get YOU to protect the bees.  Point out that if he obeys
the label, no further protection is necessary.  Is this his statement of 
intent to ignore the label?
If he unwittingly misuses a pesticide, it is a violation, but wilful
misuse makes it a criminal act, and he could be prosecuted.  (And your
discussion with him now is evidence that he is aware of the label
directions, and perhaps has stated his intention to ignore them.)
 
   Also point out that the label refers to bees in general, not just those
that are kept.  Demanding that the beekeeper protect the bees, will not
protect other pollinators.

   Furthermore, the demand that you protect the bees, is a seizure of your
property, without compensation, in violation of your civil rights.  If you
are a commercial beekeeper, you may have to travel, hire labor, etc.  And,
if there are trees down, you may not even be able to get to your bees. 
You may have multiple sites endangered at the same time.

   Even if you are a backyard hobbyist, you'll have to take time off from
work to "protect" your bees.  (Read the Bill of Rights, which protects
citizens from such government seizures.)  It is the applicators legal
responsibility to comply with the label.

   I have heard that North Carolina has an officially sanctioned system of
beekeeper notification, which circumvents the label directions.  This is
NOT legal, and should be challenged.  Individual states can make pesticide
laws stricter, but not more lenient than the Federal Insecticide,
Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act of 1976.  They cannot do an "end run"
around the label directions.

   After making sure your applicator knows the ropes, you may be a bit
safer.  But I've had many an applicator tell me they will obey the rules,
and never give it another thought.  

    So get out and do some monitoring yourself!  Nighttime applications
are not going to bother the bees, the materials used are not residual
enought to have much effect on bees by the next day.  Also, some blossoms
may be closed.  It is during the day, that you must be alert.  If you see
an application in progress, and bees are working, get the spraying filmed.
 Then immediately show bees foraging on goldenrod, or other flowers within
the area that the application is being done.  Record time and date, which
can be done on most cameras.  Get witnesses, if you can.  

   Then call your pesticide regulators and report a suspected violation. 
Remember, it is only a "suspected" violation, until you ascertain that the
material has the bee-protection label directions.  It's possible the
applicator could be spraying a mosquito larvicide, or even a cotton
defoliant, either of which would not hurt bees, nor have label directions
for bee protection.  Many of us never report anything until there is a
bee-kill, and often not then because we've gotten cynical about the paper
shuffling and lack of action.  In this case, you are not reporting a
bee-kill, you are reporting a label violation.  It is irrelevant whether
you have YOUR OWN bees nearby; you have established that there are bees. 
And by protecting all bees, you'll protect your own.

    You need to get general documentation, every chance you get, of the
patterns of foraging times.  Right now, here in South Carolina, they
nights have been cool, with heavy dews, and bees don't get out much in the
morning.  By noon they are really hitting it, and they will continue until
the late afternoon chill starts.  Goldenrod is just coming to the peak
time; it should be at peak by the first of the week. In another two or
three weeks we'll be due for a frost, then it will be mostly asters for
forage.  They are quite frost resistant.

   I am going to do all I can to help inform and press for compliance with
label directions, but it is going to require more beekeepers to be
involved, to keep some areas of this storm zone from becoming barren of
ALL pollinators, as it did here in South Carolina.  Bumblebee populations
in some areas went down to near zero, and are just showing some recovery
now, after seven years!  

   It took me several years to build back my hive count.  I had a lot of
equipment lost as well, because the following year, I had no bees to fill
my equipment.  Comb was eaten by wax worm, or dried out to the point where
bees just wouldn't use it.

   We beekeepers are providing a public service, just by being present. 
And if we do contract pollination by design, we are intensifying that
service.  We help feed wildlife as well.  I am proud of my work.  I refuse
to be dumped on any longer.

    Will you get involved?

[email-masked]    Dave Green,  PO Box 1200,  Hemingway,  SC
29554

Practical Pollination Home Page            Dave & Janice Green
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