Pop in to your local Homebase, find the long aisles where the plethora of garden pesticides are arrayed, and you will now find glossy leaflets prominently displayed with a picture of a bumblebee on the front, entitles “BEE INFORMED - WHEN USING INSECTICIDES IN YOUR GARDEN”. So far so good, I can’t really argue with that. But read on.

Inside the leaflet, you will learn that bees are important. Excellent stuff. Then you will be told that bee health has been compromised, and that “A number of culprits have been identified, including:

• Parasitic mites such as Varroa

• Bacterial, fungal and viral diseases

• Habitat loss and degradation

• Genetic factors”

All true, but you might be thinking that there is an obvious omission from this list. Read on, and you will learn that “Some claims have also been made of a possible link between the decline in bee populations and the use of some insecticides. This has not been shown scientifically”. Hmmm.

The “some insecticides” they refer to are presumably neonicotinoids, the controversial chemicals that have been at the heart of a ferocious debate for ten years or more. Neonicotinoids are the active ingredient in many garden insecticides, and you may well also drip them on the neck of your dog or cat to prevent fleas. A group of scientists at the European Food Standards Agency spent six months examining the safety of these chemicals, and concluded that they pose an “unacceptable risk”. As a result, a majority of European countries voted for a ban on several of the most widely used neonics on flowering crops that bees might visit (the UK government opposed, of course). Since then, a huge review of over 1,000 scientific papers was written by 28 scientists from all over the world (I was one), under the auspices of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and it concludes that neonics are harmful to bees and pose a serious threat to biodiversity. On top of that, The European Academy of Sciences published a huge report on the subject last year, written by a team comprising a leading scientist from every European state. Their findings echoed the earlier reviews; these chemicals are damaging to bees and other wild insects. None of this is particularly surprising; these are highly poisonous neurotoxins that kill insects of any sort in minute, near-infinitesimal doses. They are also highly persistent, sometimes lasting for years in soil and plants.       

So who produced this wildly misleading leaflet? The Crop Protection Association, the Horticultural Trades Association, and the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA). The first two come as no surprise; these are essentially wings of the agrochemical industry, pushing their poisons as usual. But the BBKA? Really? Shame on you.

The leaflet goes on to say that “Provided that garden care products are used as directed on the label, they will not pose a problem to bee health.” Yet a recent Swedish study, published in the most prestigious scientific journal in the world (Nature), showed huge impacts of neonics on bumblebees and solitary bees when the chemicals were used by farmers ‘as directed on the label’. Remember that, 50 years ago, the agrochemical industry assured us the DDT was safe, until it turned out that it wasn’t. Later, they told us that organophosphates were fine, except they weren’t. Do you believe them this time? I don’t. 

The simple truth is that none of the array of chemicals on sale in your local garden centre are necessary. I have a two acre garden that I manage singlehandedly, while having a full-time job, and I manage to grow heaps of flowers and veg. It isn’t the tidiest garden ever, but it looks wonderful (to me anyway!). Every year my broad beans are attacked by a horde of black bean aphids, but after a week or two an army of ladybirds, hoverflies, lacewings and tiny parasitoid wasps come to the rescue, and in no time they are gone. The bean plants look a bit dog-eared, but they recover and give a great harvest. No need for insecticides. I’m ashamed to admit I used to use glyphosate, and I still have an old pot of it in the shed still, but since the World Health Organisation announced that it is highly likely to be carcinogenic[1] I have stopped using it. Hoeing works just fine, and I have kids and pets in the garden.   

To be honest, I expect nothing else from the pesticide industry. They are a hugely powerful and rich lobby that spends a fortune trying to convince us that we need their products. But why does Homebase push their propaganda? I guess money is the answer. Why does the BBKA support it? Do their members agree? I’m pretty sure that most of them don’t. The senior management of BBKA have always had an oddly cosy relationship with the agrochemical industry, to the horror on many of the BBKA members who I have spoken to. I guess that money has changed hands at some point.

The leaflet also mentions the Royal Horticultural Society as a source of further information, though it is not clear if RHS endorse it. I sincerely hope not.

We should boycott Homebase until they stop displaying this leaflet (my boycott started today, but on my own I don’t think that will bring them to their knees). We should campaign for these chemicals to be withdrawn entirely from garden use. I would love to see ALL pesticides banned for use in the garden; there is just no need, no need at all.  

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The leaflet can be downloaded from the Crop Protection Association directly here:

http://www.cropprotection.org.uk/media/31346/bee_safe_leaflet_v13_final_final_jan_12.pdf