From PennEnvironment (http://www.pennenvironment.org):
Bees had their worst summer on record, with beekeepers losing 43 percent of their hives during the summer of 2019.
These precious pollinators play a vital role in our ecosystems, but they face serious threats: pesticides, habitat loss, global warming and more. It’s clear that bees need our help — and that’s why we’re calling on our state representatives to ban the worst uses of the pesticides that kill bees.
Go to https://pennenvironment.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=39573 to tell your state representatives: Save the bees.
Summers are supposed to be a time for bee populations to grow and replenish their hives — it’s far more common to see die-offs occur in the winter. But last summer saw the highest summer bee loss on record.1
We aren’t just losing honeybee hives. We’re losing nature’s best pollinators as millions of bees of every species dies off.2
Climate change and habitat loss play a role, but a growing body of evidence shows that neonicotinoids — a class of pesticides — are also killing bees. And they’re used everywhere from our parks, lawns and gardens to pretreated seeds planted in agricultural fields. They’re even allowed in wildlife refuges, where a bee should be safest of all.
We’ll continue to lose bees at an alarming rate — unless we end the worst uses of the pesticides that are killing them. That’s why we’re calling on our representatives to support a ban today.
One way we can make a big difference is by banning bee-killing pesticides in the places where we need them least: our parks, lawns and gardens. Add your name to urge your representative to ban the consumer sale of neonicotinoids to save the bees.
Use your voice to save the bees today.
1. University of Maryland, “US beekeepers reported lower winter losses but abnormally high summer losses,” Science Daily, June 22, 2020.
2. “Pollination,” Michigan State University Department of Entomology.
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