Just found out my favorite local nursery uses pesticides that kill bees

I was at Green Thumb Gardens over on Elm Street last Saturday and overheard the owner talking to a supplier about their 'maintenance spray' schedule. Looked it up on my phone right there in the aisle and it's neonicotinoids, the stuff that's proven to mess up bee navigation and reproduction. I've been buying their tomato starts for 4 years and had no clue. Has anyone else checked what their go-to nursery uses on their plants?

2 comments

2 Comments

jordan1842d ago

You mentioned those "pollinator-friendly signs" out front, and that's the part that really gets me. If they're knowingly putting up those signs while using neonicotinoids, that goes past just bad practice straight into false advertising territory. What do you plan to ask them when you stop by tomorrow? I'd be curious if they're even aware of the connection between those pesticides and bee decline, or if they're just buying whatever the supplier pushes on them. Seems like a question worth asking, because if they don't know, that's one thing, but if they do know and still do it, that's a whole different problem.

wilson.jesse2d ago

Whoa wait, hold up... neonicotinoids? At Green Thumb Gardens? I've been going there for years too, never would have guessed they'd be using that stuff. That's seriously messed up, especially when they've got all those pollinator-friendly signs out front near the perennials. Makes me wonder what else they're not telling people... I'm definitely going to stop by tomorrow and ask them about it directly, see what they say.