On Friday, 27th April neonics were banned for use on all outdoor crops.
Together, we said no to bee-harming pesticides, neonicotinoids, and today the EU member states listened, and voted, on the basis of overwhelming scientific evidence.
We need to keep these promises
However, post-Brexit we need to keep these promises to continue to protect our pollinators.
We must keep up the pressure to ensure the ban continues outside of the EU.
Neonicotinoids (or ‘neonics’) are systemic pesticides: Unlike contact pesticides, which remain on the surface, neonics are absorbed into the plant. Plants are sprayed or seeds are coated in these pesticides, which then are taken up by every part of the plant as it grows.
When an animal eats any part of the plant—from roots and leaves to fruit, flowers and pollen—it ingests these pesticides.
Neonics are meant to be more targeted than non-systemic pesticides, but they’re not. Research has shown that only 5% of the pesticide actually gets taken up by the crop. The other 95% ends up in the soil, the groundwater, the air—and other nearby plants, including wildflowers and hedges.
Neonicotinoids harm bees, butterflies, birds, and other animals.
Research on bees has exposed the toxic nature of these insecticides and opened up a worrying pandora’s box. Evidence now suggests they are also harmful to aquatic wildlife, birds and butterflies. As research continues, the full scale impact of these chemicals on our wildlife is emerging.
Wildlife are exposed to neonicotinoids when they eat pesticide-contaminated plants – including their seeds, pollen and nectar. And research has found that neonicotinoid pesticides aren’t acting alone: Wildflowers near crops treated with neonics are often contaminated with numerous pesticides in addition to neonicotinoids. Evidence suggests these pesticide cocktails can be 1000 times more toxic than neonicotinoids alone.
Neonicotinoids are contaminating our countryside, and poisoning our wildlife.
The EU’s partial, temporary ban isn’t enough: We demand that the Government ban the use of neonicotinoid pesticides on all crops, permanently.
Ban Neonics
See our infographic about neonics and their harmful effects on our countryside.
Neonicotinoids are likely to weaken already vulnerable populations – the final straw on top of the other threats that bees and other farmland wildlife face.
How plants become contaminated
Scientists have found that systemic pesticides such as neonicotinoids, which spread into every part of the plant, are contaminating to our countryside. Only 5% of neonicotinoid seed treatments remain in the crop, 1% is lost as dust, 94% goes into soils and streams [1]. Any growing plant can take these chemicals up into their leaves, stems, flowers and fruits and scientists have now found neonicotinoids at high doses inside the pollen of wildflowers, such as poppies and hedgerow blossom [2].
Impact on honeybees
Research has focussed on the impact of these insecticides on honey bees. The chemicals have been found to impair bees’ communication, homing and foraging ability, flight activity, ability to discriminate by smell, learning, and immune systems. These all have an impact on bees' ability to survive.
Impact on other wildlife
According to the findings of the Worldwide Integrated Assessment on Systemic Pesticides 'Neonicotinoids impact all species that chew a plant, sip its sap, drink its nectar, eat its pollen or fruit'. This is because neonicotinoids act systemically. Plants, including wildflowers and hedgerows growing near treated crops, take these insecticides up into their leaves, stems, roots, flowers, pollen and nectar.
Whilst the impact of neonicotinoids on other wildlife has been poorly studied, as new research on other species is carried out, it is raising worrying questions about the wider impacts of neonicotinoids on our farmland wildlife.
Wild bees: Field trials suggest that wild bees may be more vulnerable to neonicotinoids than honey bees. There are nearly 2000 species of wild bees in Europe and nearly 1 in 10 are declining so severely they face extinction [3].
Butterflies & other pollinators: Once common and widespread UK farmland butterflies have declined by more than half since 2000, despite conservation spending doubling. Neonicotinoid usage has been found to strongly correlate with these declines [4]. In total wild pollinators provide us with up to 60-90% of our insect pollination [5].
Leaf eaters: Research in the USA found that Monarch butterfly caterpillars are harmed when eating the leaves of wildflowers growing near to neonicotinoid treated crops [6]. But the impact of contaminated wild plant leaves on caterpillars, beetles and other leaf eaters has been poorly studied.
Birds: According to leading bee researcher Professor Dave Goulson in a session at the Soil Association Conference 2014; 'Five neonicotinoid dressed maize seeds, or 32 dressed oilseed rape seeds, are enough to kill a partridge', though more research is needed [7]. Evidence also suggests birds are being indirectly effected through their food supply (see below).
Aquatic wildlife: Widespread contamination of waterways has been already discovered in some countries [8]. Similar levels may be seen here in the UK, but no research has yet been done. Aquatic invertebrates, such as mayflies and water fleas, can suffer harm from low doses of neonicotinoids and concern is mounting for the safety of aquatic ecosystems [9,12].
Soil life: Research has found neonicotinoids in 100% of soil samples from treated crops, and nearby hedgerows. Whilst there has been little research into the impact of this, some research on common species of earthworms suggests that the levels found could cause both harm [10].
Indirect effects due to a decline in insect food: Much of our farmland wildlife needs a diet rich in insects and other bugs to survive. Intensive farming has already caused a decline in this food source, and neonicotinoids may be making this scarcity even worse. In the Netherlands, strong correlations were found between neonicotinoid contamination of waterways and bird declines – this link could be caused by the decline in insects and the impact of this on birds’ diets and ability to feed their chicks [11].
A pesticide cocktail in our countryside
Previous research from the USA and France suggests that wildflower pollen can contain a complex cocktail of contaminating pesticides – with completely unknown effects on pollinators. Research by Sussex University and supported by the Soil Association further highlighted the impact of neonicotinoids. Here’s what they found:
UK bees are exposed to whole cocktail of pesticides – the overall impact of these cocktails remains completely unknown and untested.
Samples of pollen from bumblebee and honeybee nests contained on average between 5 and 7 different pesticides, mostly from wildflowers.
In the pollen of the wildflowers sampled by neonicotinoid treated crops, an average of 3-4 pesticides were found
Contaminated plant species included Creeping Buttercup, White Campion, Scented Mayweed, Hogweed, Poppy, Wild Rose, Burnet Saxifrage and Fool's Parsley.
The impact of the controversial insecticides, neonicotinoids, may be being underestimated. 100% of pollen samples collected by bees contained mixtures of neonicotinoids and fungicides, which previous research shows may increase the toxicity of neonicotinoids by up to 1000 times.
The research shows that the current partial ban on neonicotinoids must be extended to cereals as neonicotinoid cocktails were found in the pollen of wildflowers near to treated wheat.
Read our press release, with links to the peer-reviewed paper here
[4] Gilburn, A. S., Bunnefeld, N., Wilson, J. M., Botham, M. S., Brereton, T. M., Fox, R., & Goulson, D. (2015). Are neonicotinoid insecticides driving declines of widespread butterflies? PeerJ, 3, e1402. http://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1402
[6] Pecenka, J. R., & Lundgren, J. G. (2015). Non-target effects of clothianidin on monarch butterflies. The Science of Nature, 102(3-4), 19. http://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-015-1270-y
[7] Gibbons, D., Morrissey, C., & Mineau, P. (2015). A review of the direct and indirect effects of neonicotinoids and fipronil on vertebrate wildlife. Environmental Science and Pollution Research International, 22(1), 103–18. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3180-5
[8,11] Hallmann, C. A., Foppen, R. P. B., van Turnhout, C. A. M., de Kroon, H., & Jongejans, E. (2014). Declines in insectivorous birds are associated with high neonicotinoid concentrations. Nature, 511(7509), 341–3. http://www.nature.com/articles/nature13531
[9,10] Pisa, L. W., Amaral-Rogers, V., Belzunces, L. P., Bonmatin, J. M., Downs, C. A., Goulson, D., … Wiemers, M. (2015). Effects of neonicotinoids and fipronil on non-target invertebrates. Environmental Science and Pollution Research International, 22(1), 68–102.
[11] Hallmann, C. A., Foppen, R. P. B., Van Turnhout, C. A. M., De Kroon, H., & Jongejans, E. (2014). Declines in insectivorous birds are associated with high neonicotinoid concentrations. Nature, 511. http://www.nature.com/articles/nature13531
[12] Sánchez-Bayo, F., Goka, K., & Hayasaka, D. (2016). Contamination of the Aquatic Environment with Neonicotinoids and its Implication for Ecosystems. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 4, 71. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2016.00071
The Soil Association submitted evidence to the UK Environmental Audit Committee's inquiry into Insects and Insecticides in November 2012. The submission provides as useful a summary of the evidence against neonicotinoids as it did then. Read here
Neonicotinoid pesticides must be banned permanently. We need mass action to make that happen. I grew up on a farm with lots of different animals – sheep, horses, cattle, chickens, geese, and not to mention the wildlife, which is disappearing from our countryside. I am proud to be a life-long member of the Soil Association, because I believe that my donations really matter when it comes to getting wildlife back in the countryside.Heather Rainbow Member of the Soil Association
