Recently a friend of mine spoke to me about a insecticide deadly to bees. At first I just felt sorry he had lost most of his hive, not to mention the money loss. However whilst speaking with him , it began to sound like it had a way further effect then just on bees.
Here is some things I found out about Fipronil.
Fipronil is an insecticide used to control insects and is particularly deadly to bees.
It is used in a wide range of things but mainly on pets to protect them from fleas.
In baits, as pest control to protect our homes and workplaces from infestation and on crops to protect them from pests.
In 2017 however there was an egg withdrawal in Europe as contaminated eggs were discovered on farms in the Netherlands. Allegedly 180 farms were contaminated! This lead to millions of eggs being withdrawn from sale.
It was reported that 26 of the 28 EU countries found eggs and egg products to be contaminated with Fipronil. 45 countries worldwide were affected.
The contamination is alleged to have come from the pest control they were using to protect the chickens from fleas and ticks.
The same ingredient is used in a lot of flea treatments for our pets .
Whilst there is no scientific evidence that it is harmful to pets, besides them eating it. Some pet owners have taken to social media posting videos and blogs about the dangers of using these products.
Fipronil is considered “moderately toxic” to humans if eaten in large quantities.
Side effects of poisoning are: nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dizziness, and epileptic seizures.
It is harmful to kidneys, liver and thyroid glands if it ingested.
However aside from eating large amounts it is considered to be not poisonous to humans.
However if it gets in our channels and river systems it could be devastating.
Studies have found Fipronil to be highly toxic to both fish and invertebrates both fresh water and sea dwelling.
Just when you think surely it can’t get any worse. Fipronil is also listed by the US EPA as an active ingredient in pesticides as an ingredient that may cause cancer.
Studies in rats have found Fipronil affects their reproduction. Effects included: less mating, reduced fertility, smaller litter size, and increased loss of pregnancy.
As you can see Fipronil is very good at killing pests. But what effects is it having on us?
To try and save the bee industry in Europe, Fipronil was banned from use on crops in the EU in 2017.
Bees are an important part of our ecosystem.
They not only make honey but also pollination plants so they can reproduce and grow crops.
It is lost on me why we are still using Fipronil in Australia.
Anyways this is just a little info I read about.
I leave you to make your own decisions.
Have an awesome day everyone!
Sources:
https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/brochures-leaflets/fipronil-eggs-factsheet-december-2017
http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/archive/fiptech.html#reg
http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/fipronil.html#wildlife
https://www.pan-europe.info/old/Campaigns/pesticides/documents/cut_off/list%20of%20lists.pdf
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Thanks for sharing that @mickvir, we do need to use less chemicals, they only work short term anyways, let's work with nature instead of against it.
There are actually very much that we can do to grow food that is as effective, and in some cases even more effective, than using chemicals.
And many of them are also great at taking CO2 from the atmosphere and storing it in the soil, Regenerative Agriculture for example, it's called Carbon Soil Sequestration.
You just grow and graze your land in a way where you use plants and animals in combinations where the result is that you build a very thick layer of topsoil.
That has the effect of storing more CO2 than plowed soil which is not as thick, it also grows a lot better, especially when there is drought or flooding, since it is much better at holding and receiving water.
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I agree .
I know there are certain things we need chemicals for, but where we can do it without we should always do so.
Also I did read whilst researching Fipronil that they are monitoring it’s effects at least.
I remember when I was a kid that the farms in the area I live used to have a small flock of sheep and after harvest they would put the sheep into the paddock and they would have different crops at different times of the year.
Now a lot of the farms I drive past just seem to grow the same thing all the time and I don’t see sheep in the paddocks much anymore unless they are sheep farmers of course.
Thanks for sharing,
Have an awesome day!
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Thanks @mickvir, the big farms of today never make the small effort of learning about this, they just buy whatever the big corporations tell them to, but they are actually the ones that could benefit the most since they have the scale to internalize the entire process on their own, while smaller ones are currently using it to outcompete the big ones on the better quality that you get from it, but being small also means that you only have the scale to do everything if you are several farms working together.
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Pesticides are a big problem, and not just fipronil - these chemical poisons do more than we think, as well as staying in the ecosystems for longer than we think. As a society, we need to stop thinking that the solution to everything is poison.
Now, with that said, I will also tell you that honey bees are an invasive species.
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Lol, I can’t watch that video it’s censored out for our country. Something to do with copyright laws.
I agree with chemicals being more harmful then we think . But I also use chemicals, so yeah.
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Oh no! I will try to find another video, though its unlikely to be as funny.
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