There is concern that increased spraying for mosquitoes because of fears of the Zika virus, which may cause serious birth defects for children born to women infected with the virus, could cause harm not just to people, but to pollinators, particularly bees, moths and butterflies.
Pollinator advocates are worried that increased use of insecticides for mosquitoes could have the unintended consequence of leading to a further decline in pollinators. Pollinators are necessary for 75 percent of flowering plants and 35 percent of the world’s food supply.
Recently, Eureka Springs became an official Bee City USA pledging to take actions to protect pollinators. That organization sent out a press release recently regarding millions of bees killed in Summerville, S.C., after aerial spraying of an insecticide, Naled, intended to kill mosquitoes.
Bee City USA said that according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), “Spraying Naled can kill bees outside of their hives at the time of spraying; therefore, spraying is limited to dawn or dusk when bees are inside their hives. For additional protection, urban beekeepers inside the spray zone can cover their hives when spraying occurs.”
However, Dorchester County failed to directly notify beekeepers of plans to spray and sprayed at a time when the bees were active.
“We can’t really afford to quite such a knee jerk reaction resorting to aerial sprays that kill bees and aren’t even effective against mosquitoes,” said Ken Trimble, who heads the Eureka Springs Pollinators Alliance. “It has been shown in the past that spraying adult mosquitoes is probably one of the least effective ways of dealing with mosquito-borne diseases. For those, you need to concentrate on breeding grounds where mosquitoes are in their larval stage. That is much more effective than aerial spraying that may have unintended consequences.”
Bee City USA quoted Dr. David Pimentel, a former professor of entomology at Cornell University, as saying aerial spraying delivers less than 0.0001 percent of the insecticide to the target mosquitoes, and instead, releases 99.999 percent into the environment generally, threatening public health and potentially causing other environmental problems.
Trimble said in addition to aerial spraying for mosquitoes killing beneficial insects, it may also kill natural mosquito predators like dragonflies and damselflies. Those are more effective at long-term mosquito control than insecticides that, when used frequently, become ineffective because mosquitoes build up tolerance to the chemical.
“Who knows what chemical spraying does to birds and amphibian populations?” Trimble asked. “To me, it makes sense to search out information and consult with people who really do understand how these bacterias and viruses work within mosquitoes, then formulate a plan. My understanding is that the Zika showing up in South Carolina wasn’t even mosquito-borne. It was carried into the state by people infected elsewhere. We just need to be very careful to prevent having consequences we don’t really intend.”
Trimble said he wouldn’t want to belittle how serious Zika and other mosquito-borne illnesses like West Nile Virus and dengue fever are.
“Those are all very serious,” Trimble said. “But we don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. We have to make some very smart choices and proceed accordingly.”
With Eureka Springs being a Bee City USA, Trimble said they concerned that there are sufficient protocols within the City of Eureka Springs and possibly through Carroll County to have intelligent, effective procedures if Zika or other viruses show up in the local mosquito population.
“If something happens, we need contingency plans so we aren’t just reacting to circumstances, but know what our bigger goals are,” he said. “We need to protect our pollinators and our food chain, and not succumb to fear.”
Bee City USA encourages beekeeping chapters to meet with county officials in charge of vector control as soon as possible and each year to discuss mosquito control plans that protect pollinator health, and discuss in the event of bee kills, how beekeepers will be compensated.
Local beekeeper Frank Egan said that it is recommended that beekeepers get notified by the agency doing the spraying so that hives can be covered and protected. But Egan said that doesn’t work very well in places that are very hot in the summer, like Summerville, S.C. “It is so hot that the bees hang around outside of the hives instead of in them. And second, not all beekeepers will register.
“In that climate down there, there is no way to contain their bees,” Egan said. “No matter what, there are going to bee losses.”
Egan points out that Naled is banned in Europe.
“This is banned in Europe, and why would they do that?” he asked. “There is some doubt as to its efficiency as an insecticide and its safety for human beings. Europe also bans the neonicotinoid pesticides that are long-lasting and very harmful to bees. Europe is far ahead us in protecting both the pollinators and people.”
Bee City USA® is a nonprofit national organization that galvanizes communities to sustain pollinators. Learn more at beecityusa.org.