Spring is springing, and that means I'm starting to see claims about Lowe's killing the bees. Please actually learn about the claims that you're spreading before you spread panic instead of information!

It's true that neonics kill bees - if you practically waterboard them with the pesticide in a lab, but that (or more realistic equivalents) is not how it's used. Seeds are treated with the pesticide (something we do these days instead of crop dusting whole fields with the pesticides - not instead of not using pesticides at all) and there are only residual amounts of the chemical present in colonies - at levels that have not been shown to harm bees or people. Doses matter! This is the same misunderstanding that leads people to hear about the chemicals in vaccines and conclude that the vaccines must not be safe. If you see a claim that something is toxic, read how that was tested, and whether there's good reason to think it can be extrapolated to normal exposure outside of a lab.

And there is no correlation between the introduction of neonics use to any decrease in the numbers of bees.

The alternative to neonics treated seeds is not no pesticides - nor would we want it to be. We are only able to feed ourselves using the relatively small amount of land that we do because we have pushed up yields with agricultural technology, including pesticides. This tech is the reason that we've seen tree cover recovering in North America. Always, always ask when you want to see something banned what the realistic alternative will be - don't fall for unicorn thinking and assume it will be what you hope for.

Of course, it's too late for all of this. Public outcry won out over the actual science, and we're already phasing out the use of neonics. (Lowes pledged to phase them out even earlier, but they still get attacked. Go figure.)

I hope that someone has developed a safer pesticide than what they replaced.