Fighting Emerald Ash Borer Could Harm Birds and Bees

I learned something interesting while reading the City of St. Paul's EAB Response Management Plan. Treating trees for Emerald Ash Borer in Twin Cities could harm bird and bee populations. It all comes down to pesticide use. The city rejected allowing residents to use any pesticide they choose on publicly owned trees because of the potential environmental impact. Also, the city will only allow injection of pesticides into public trees such as those on boulevards by a trained professional and not spraying which is a good thing as far as environmental impact. Residents can treat their own trees with pesticides and the official policy of the city will be that, "City Forestry staff will provide residents available information on EAB pesticides when requested but will remain neutral on whether or not to use." The document does not makes clear what the "available information on EAB pesticides" will be. It could simply be a list that says which ones work or it could include information on the harm they can cause. The fact that they are going to remain neutral on whether or not residents should use them may indicate that they will not tell people about the harmful effects of the pesticides but perhaps I am wrong on this. The same document states that pesticide use is usually not cost effective in the long run and there are environmental risks. I hope they pass that information along to the public as what one person does in the city effects us all.

Most pesticides used to treat Emerald Ash Borer infestations contain Imidacloprid. Imidacloprid is the first pesticide in a new family of pesticides based on nicotine. Nicotine occurs in tobacco plants as a natural insecticide.

The City of St. Paul's EAB Response Management Plan, contains an Appendix A which is an Imidacloprid Fact Sheet. While they do not say where they got the information it is clearly copied directly from the Sierra Club Canada Imidacloprid Fact Sheet. They city fails for not citing their source of the fact sheet. The original can be found online and includes all of the footnotes that are missing from the city's document. [Note to St. Paul: If you are going to rip of someone's work and include it in your document and the text contains footnotes it makes you look dumb to not include the footnotes you are supposedly citing.] Of interest in the fact sheet are the following passages.

"Imidacloprid is toxic to birds and wildlife and mildly toxic to fish. Imidacloprid use has been linked to eggshell thinning in birds[3], reduced egg production and reduced hatching success at exposures of 234ppm in food.[4] It is highly toxic to certain species including the house sparrow[5], pigeon, canary and Japanese quail[6]."

As far as bees are concerned, the report says, "Imidacloprid is an insecticide, so it is not surprising that it is toxic to many beneficial insects such as honey bees to which imidacloprid is highly toxic.[7] The widespread use of imidacloprid has been linked to colony collapse disorder, a phenomenon described by beekeepers, researchers and government officials when entire hive populations seem to disappear, apparently dying out. France has put restrictions on the use of imidacloprid (GauchoT) since the 1990s over concerns for the bee population."

The link between Imidacloprid and colony collapse disorder isn't really clear but caution is warranted.

I know there are bee hives on the St. Paul campus of the U of M for the agriculture fields. Since the fields are essentially right in the hot zone for EAB infestation I wonder how much pesticide has been used in the area and if there has been any affect on the bee colonies?

My concern is that residents who are not experienced in using pesticides will use them incorrectly and in doses that are harmful to the environment in an ultimately futile effort to save ash trees in their yards. Too many homeowners take the "more is better" approach to chemicals and really don't care what labels say.

~Kirk

Footnotes:

[3] U.S. EPA. Office of Pesticide Programs. 1994. Pesticide fact sheet: Imidacloprid. Washington, D.C., Mar. 18.

[4] U.S. EPA. 1992. Data evaluation record: NTN 33893 MRID No. 420553-13. Washington, D.C., Aug. 24.

[5] U.S. EPA. Office of Pesticide Programs. 1994. Pesticide fact sheet: Imidacloprid. Washington, D.C., Mar. 18.

[6] U.S. EPA. Office of prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances. 1994. Imidacloprid, acian 6(a) (2) submittals. Memo from A.F. Mciorowski, Ecological Effects Branch, to D. Edwards, Registration Division, Washington, D.C.

[7] .S. EPA. Office of Pesticide Programs. 1994. Pesticide fact sheet: Imidacloprid. Washington, D.C., Mar. 18.