Our bees are in the midst of a crisis — their populations are collapsing,

and we need to take action.

A long and growing list of threats are driving bee deaths, from a warming
climate to shrinking habitats — and the summer of 2019 was the single
worst one for bees on record.1 But researchers are particularly concerned
about one bee killer: Neonicotinoid pesticides, also known as neonics.

Saving the bees means stopping the worst uses of these bee-killing
pesticides. Tell your governor to take action.

Pollinators are vital to the health of our ecosystems. Bees of all kinds —
from the familiar honeybee to America’s thousands of wild species —
are nature’s best.2

They’re truly incredible creatures: Wherever they thrive, the web of life
is stronger, broader and more colorful. And we’re losing them by the millions.

The European Union, Canada and four U.S. states have already passed
restrictions on neonics. There’s a reason for that: In the two decades
that we’ve been using them on our crops, gardens and parks, they’v
been strongly linked with bee colony collapse.

When bees ingest these chemicals through treated plants, their
immune systems are weakened and their ability to navigate home
to their hives is hampered. Neonics even harm the brain development
of baby bees.3,4

There’s a lot that we need to do to save the bees, including expanding
and protecting bee habitat and making our farming practices less toxic.
One of the best steps we can take right now? Tell your governor:
Ban the worst uses of neonic pesticides in your state.

To secure a future for the bees, we need to plant bee-friendly plants and
protect more habitat so wild bees can thrive, move American agriculture
in a more sustainable direction, and keep harmful pesticides away from
the places where bees should be safest of all: wildlife refuges.

Your state can take a great first step toward that vision by banning the worst
uses of neonic pesticides. Uses like selling neonics to consumers for their
lawns and gardens, and pre-treated seeds (which make the plants that grow
from them toxic to bees without spraying), are the ones we should dispense
with first.

With your help, we can make sure bees never have a summer as bad as 2019’s
again. Take action.

Thanks for making it all possible,

Wendy Wendlandt
Acting President

1. “US beekeepers reported lower winter losses but abnormally high summer losses,” ScienceDaily, June 22, 2020.
2. “Native plants and ecosystem services: Pollination,” Michigan State
University Department of Entomology, accessed September 21, 2020.
3. Lauren Aratani, “Pesticide widely used in US particularly harmful to
bees, study finds,” The Guardian, August 6, 2019.
4. “US beekeepers reported lower winter losses but abnormally high
summer losses,” ScienceDaily, June 22, 2020.