To the Editor,
The Environmental Protection Agency has determined that three widely-used neonicotinoid insecticides likely harm roughly three-fourths of all endangered plants and animals, including bees and all 39 species of amphibians protected under the Endangered Species Act. Neonicotinoids, which are banned in the European Union, are the most popular insecticides in the United States, used widely in agriculture, yet they are responsible for the precipitous decline in insect and amphibian populations. Pollinators are declining nationwide. The American bumblebee, once the most common bumblebee species in the United States, has declined by an estimated 89 percent in just the past 20 years. The chemicals clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam are sold in spray form in local hardware stores as garden pesticides.
So far, the EPA has not banned the use of these toxic chemicals.
Similarly, herbicides designed to kill clover, crabgrass and dandelions are decimating insect habitat. Pollinators depend on these plants to do their work of providing our food.
Please, please don’t use these products in your garden and ask your lawn guy what chemicals they use.
What’s most important, survival of the species, including ours, or a perfect lawn?
Information from the Center for Biological Diversity.
Alison Anholt-White
Manchester
