Kennedy Connors reported this story on assignment from Vermont Public. The Community News Service is a program in which University of Vermont students work with professional editors to provide content for local news outlets at no cost.
As Vermont lawmakers debate whether to ban neonicotinoids, a class of pesticides known to harm bees, one beekeeper has been pleading with neighbors to not use them.
“I basically went door to door and asked neighbors not to buy plants treated by that,” said Mark Montalban, who owns Green Acres Homestead in Burlington.
“I even offered free containers of honey.”
Montalban asked neighbors within a 3-mile radius to not use seeds treated with the pesticide, and he said many have been receptive to the request — over 30 have made the switch.
Neonicotinoids are illegal in many European countries and Quebec, but in Vermont many seeds, especially corn and soybeans, are coated with the pesticide.
Spencer Hardy, a biologist studying native bees at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, said advocating at the community level can’t hurt.
“It seems like a good way to get some more public outreach going,” he said.
But he says it risks missing the bigger issue. “A lot of the large volume of neonicotinoids are not necessarily being applied at the home level, it’s primary agriculture,” Hardy said.
For homeowners, Hardy suggests directly asking nurseries if they use neonicotinoids before buying plants.