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torquillI usually take information from the Pesticide Action Network with a grain of salt; even though I've been chemically injured and deal poorly with many of the pesticides they campaign against, their tone has always struck me as overly hysterical. That said, they sometimes do a good job of aggregating other news reports and summarizing studies, and this one seems like a good read.
Carbaryl: One Poison for Another in Urban Creeks
In short: the ban on diazinon and chlorpyrifos, two pesticides used both by commercial agriculture and by homeowners, left a bit of a vacuum in the market... Homeowners are always being told that their lawns and gardens can be made prettier by pesticides, so they needed something else to reach for. This study says that the manufacturers realized that and immediately, aggressively, pushed carbaryl -- some of you may know it as Sevin. Now, perhaps unsurprisingly, waterways in the Seattle area have seen levels of carbaryl skyrocket... and it's very toxic to marine life.
I know it as a general pesticide dust which is extremely toxic to bees. It's joined the honeybee mite as a major factor in honeybee decline in North America... the situation has gotten to the point where some farmers don't have enough pollinators to grow a full crop, and I've heard from many gardeners who have to hand-pollinate squash and cucumbers to get any fruit at all. Sevin is also toxic to humans, particularly children, and can be a problem for pets. Apparently much of the increased use was for cranefly larvae in lawns, which I know must have been a direct result of ad campaigns pushing it -- it takes a hell of a lot of white grubs to do substantial damage to a lawn, and most people just have a few craneflies (mosquito hawks) buzzing around. But suggest that someone's lawn might be greener if they treat it to get rid of all of them...
...and you get massive creek runoff from overwatered, poisoned lawns.
Sorry, I tend to rant about yard mismanagement as it is, and Sevin is (to me) the backyard equivalent of a nuke... about as senseless, too. The thought that it was pushed by the industry to replace two bad actors, while itself being a neurotoxin and carcinogen, when there are much less toxic ways of achieving the same goals... it makes me want to throttle these companies with regulation until they keel over or cry uncle. Unethical doesn't even begin to describe it.
Carbaryl: One Poison for Another in Urban Creeks
In short: the ban on diazinon and chlorpyrifos, two pesticides used both by commercial agriculture and by homeowners, left a bit of a vacuum in the market... Homeowners are always being told that their lawns and gardens can be made prettier by pesticides, so they needed something else to reach for. This study says that the manufacturers realized that and immediately, aggressively, pushed carbaryl -- some of you may know it as Sevin. Now, perhaps unsurprisingly, waterways in the Seattle area have seen levels of carbaryl skyrocket... and it's very toxic to marine life.
I know it as a general pesticide dust which is extremely toxic to bees. It's joined the honeybee mite as a major factor in honeybee decline in North America... the situation has gotten to the point where some farmers don't have enough pollinators to grow a full crop, and I've heard from many gardeners who have to hand-pollinate squash and cucumbers to get any fruit at all. Sevin is also toxic to humans, particularly children, and can be a problem for pets. Apparently much of the increased use was for cranefly larvae in lawns, which I know must have been a direct result of ad campaigns pushing it -- it takes a hell of a lot of white grubs to do substantial damage to a lawn, and most people just have a few craneflies (mosquito hawks) buzzing around. But suggest that someone's lawn might be greener if they treat it to get rid of all of them...
...and you get massive creek runoff from overwatered, poisoned lawns.
Sorry, I tend to rant about yard mismanagement as it is, and Sevin is (to me) the backyard equivalent of a nuke... about as senseless, too. The thought that it was pushed by the industry to replace two bad actors, while itself being a neurotoxin and carcinogen, when there are much less toxic ways of achieving the same goals... it makes me want to throttle these companies with regulation until they keel over or cry uncle. Unethical doesn't even begin to describe it.
