Pesticides linked to falling bee numbers to stay on shelves

Bee

Pesticides linked to the recent decline in the bee population will not be removed from the shelves of a popular Rochdale garden centre.

Major DIY retailers including B&Q, Homebase and Wickes opted to pull the products last month and Friends of the Earth revealed some garden centres have followed suit.

However, in the week the Green Party handed a petition to parliament urging for neonicotinoid pesticides to be outlawed, a spokesman for All in One Garden Centre revealed they still stock them.

“I am aware but unfortunately it’s like everything - there are very conflicting reports,” he said.

“The actual active ingredient, I believe, is actually mainly used in agriculture and not in horticulture, which we deal with.

“The only product that has it in here is for lawns and it’s a pest killer, which obviously makes no difference to bees.

“I think it’s like anything - like the horsemeat for example - the more people delve into the more we hear of it, its scaremongering more than anything else.

“Obviously if there is proof we will act but we are still doing the lawn pesticide at the moment because it’s nothing to do with bees.”

Their stance is in stark contrast to Gordon Rigg Garden Centre, who believe the role bees play in horticulture requires them to be protected.

“At the moment we are not aware of anything to do with them [the neonicotinoid pesticides],” manager John Jackson said.

“But bees are beneficial to the garden centre - it’s like ladybirds - we wouldn’t stock anything to harm them because of how beneficial they are to us.”

Research by the European Commission suggested the pesticide restricts breeding for bees, and linked it to their sharp decline in population.

However, European chemical giants Bayer refute these suggestions and called European Commission proposals to ban neonicotinoid pesticides ‘draconian’.

“The company continues to believe in the responsible use of neonicotinoid-containing products which have been used for many years and are vital to European farmers,” a statement read.

The Green Party believes the British Government has a duty to protect bees in light of their falling numbers however.

Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP, said: “Bees play an essential role in our ecosystem - the authorities have a duty to act on these risks.”

Friends of the Earth Head of Campaigns Andrew Pendleton also called on the government to take action sooner rather than later.

“With bee numbers plummeting Environment Secretary Owen Paterson must take urgent action to safeguard these crucial pollinators by backing a ban and introducing a bee action plan to tackle all the threats they face,” he said.