Save the bee, says MEP

bees in a hive

Garden and farm pesticides accused of leading to the death of bees should be banned, says a North West MEP.

Liberal Democrat Chris Davies is calling for the European Commission to take urgent action to restrict the use of neonicotinoid pesticides after new scientific reports confirmed links between their use and the decline in bee numbers.

Pesticides containing neonicotinoids are widely available in garden centres and do not carry warning labels about their potential effect on bee numbers.

Environmental campaigners are calling for direct action against garden centres that continue to sell the products.

They want shoppers to cause confusion by taking boxes of neonicotinoid pesticides to the till in Garden Centres and then refusing to pay for them.

But Davies says the whole of Europe should follow the example of France and Germany where restrictions on the chemicals have been introduced.

The MEP has cross-party backing for a study into the consequences of a ban to be carried out, and is insisting that the Commissioner concerned must respond to the issue in the European Parliament.

Davies said: “Bees are not only a much-loved part of garden life but vitally important to farmers.

“Gardeners could be using pesticides on this year's flowers that mean that next year there won’t be any flowers at all."

Latest research appears to confirm that neonicotinoid pesticides weaken the resistance of bees, leaving them vulnerable to other threats that they would normally survive.