How Home Depot can protect bees from deadly pesticides

Bees are nature’s most effective pollinators, responsible for a third of all the food that we consume. But instead of being thanked, bees are dying at a horrifying rate to bee-killing pesticides known as neonicotinoids (neonics).

How pesticides kill bees

People often spray neonic pesticides on lawns, fields or gardens. When bees come into contact with these toxins, the damage is severe:

Neonics destroy the bees’ nervous systems, causing the bee to spasm or lie paralyzed
The toxin also attacks bee brains, which can make bees to fly in circles and eventually die of brain damage
Bees can accidentally carry contaminated pollen back to the hive and poison baby bees

Neonics are partly responsible for the American bumblebee’s 90% drop in population.

Neonics are also extremely addictive. One study has shown that once bees get a taste of pesticides, bees actually prefer neonic-treated pollen to pesticide-free food. Perhaps neonics’ deadly appeal shouldn’t come as a surprise — they are closely related to nicotine.

Bees are essential creatures — all they want to do is buzz from flower to flower, fulfilling their natural role as pollinators. But with neonics, that need to pollinate is what seals the bees’ fate.

How Home Depot can phase out bee-killing pesticides

All of this is completely backward. People use pesticide to protect plants, but instead of doing that, neonics kill the pollinators that plants depend upon. What’s worse, many neonic pesticides are still openly sold, including at home improvement giant Home Depot.

That’s why we’re calling on Home Depot to stop selling these dangerous bee-killing pesticides and give bees a chance to buzz from flower to flower in safety.

Home Depot has already taken some measures to limit neonic pesticides. At the encouragement of Environment America and our national network, the company agreed to phase out neonics in all its plants by 2018.

But a partial phase-out isn’t sufficient. Because of neonic’s addictive qualities, bees will still choose pesticide-sprayed plants if they have the option. That’s why Home Depot also needs to stop selling neonic pesticides for lawn care and gardening.

Until we get all neonics out of the supply chain, bees will continue to die horrific deaths from the flowers that they try to pollinate.

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