farming - Prairie Rivers of Iowa

Say No to Neonics: What They Are and Why We Should Care

by Katelyn Rinicker | Aug 5, 2024

Neonicotinoid pesticides are detrimental to not only monarch health, but all pollinator health. If you have never heard of Neonicotinoids, or Neonics for short, and aren’t sure why you should care, I urge you to keep reading.

What are Neonicotinoids?

Neonics are a type of pesticide that attacks insects on a neurological level. This means “the way they work is by permanently binding to the nerve cells of insects, overstimulating and destroying them. Exposed insects often exhibit uncontrollable shaking and twitching followed by paralysis before eventually dying” (Lindwall, 2022). These pesticides are used in a variety of ways including on agricultural land, golf courses, lawns, gardens, and even in tick and flea repellents for our pets, making Neonics the most used pesticide in the USA since its development in the 1990s (Lindwall, 2022). I know how they affect insects and I’m not sure I’d want my little furballs anywhere near it.

Why should we care?

Neonics are applied to soil around a plant’s roots or, even worse, as a coating on a plant seed (Lindwall, 2022). If it is applied as a coating to a seed, the plant absorbs it as it grows. This means that the whole plant is now toxic to any insect that tries to have lunch (Lindwall, 2022). The sweet nectar, pollen, leaves, stems, and even fruit are not safe for insects to pollinate or munch on. “In large-scale studies in the UK, agricultural applications of seed-coated neonicotinoids were found to be associated with decreased abundances of bees and butterflies” (Van Deynze et al., 2024). Even when neonics are applied at nonlethal doses, they can weaken critical functions, such as an insect’s immune system, navigation, stamina, memory, and fertility (Lindwall, 2022). So if the chemical doesn’t outright kill the insect, it prevents it from reproducing and significantly decreases its quality of life.

Neonics are also extremely harmful to pollinators. They are non-selective, which means that all insects are affected by them. “Since their introduction, neonics have made U.S. agriculture nearly 50 times more harmful to insect life” (Lindwall, 2022). “Almost 45% of the 3374 articles on neonicotinoids published to date … addressed the issue of negative interactions of neonicotinoids with bees and other pollinators” (Jactel et al., 2019). There are so many articles on the internet that address neonics and call for a change in pesticide use. During a 17 year study on butterflies and neonics, it was found that the diversity of butterflies and abundance were negatively affected and declined (Van Deynze et al., 2024). It is thought that these pesticides may have triggered the decline of butterflies in 2003, when treated soybeans became available in the Midwest (Van Deynze et al., 2024). Butterflies aren’t the only pollinator affected by this nasty pesticide. Beekeepers have reported that more than 45% of their honeybee colonies have been lost between 2020 and 2021; this is the second highest colony collapse rate on record (Lindwall, 2022). That’s not all, Iowa is the home of over 4,000 native bee species including the already endangered Rusty Patched bumblebee. This means that all pollinators are at risk due to these chemicals.

This graph from Van Deynze et al. shows the correlations between pesticide use and the decline in monarch butterfly (D. plexippus) populations throughout the years.

So maybe you don’t care about some bugs. Well, it’s affecting people too. When applied to the soil around a plant, only about 2% – 5% actually get on the target plant, with the rest becoming residue on the soil outside of the plant’s root system’s reach. This residual pesticide then gets washed away by irrigation or rain into our waterways. These are areas we let our children swim and play in. These are areas we are fishing in. These are areas we live by and see daily. A 2015 study by the U.S. Geological Survey found neonic pollution in more than half of the streams it sampled nationwide (Lindwall, 2022).

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Don’t worry, we can still do something to help!

In 96% of cases, neonics can be replaced by alternative pest control and even better, in 78% of cases, at least one non-chemical alternative method can be used (Jactel et al., 2019). You can buy organic seeds to plant or check that the seeds you are using haven’t been coated in this liquid death for our insect friends. Planting more safe gardens with plenty of blooming plants is a great way to support pollinators. Growing milkweed is not only essential to monarch survival, but will attract bees and other insects as well. Even if you are in an apartment, you can help out! Growing some beautiful native plants like Hoary Vervain (Verbena stricta) or Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) in a container garden on your balcony or patio are great options if you don’t have lawn space. Making sure that you have blooming plants in Spring, Summer, and Fall is essential to pollinators survival.

Citations

Jactel H, Verheggen F, Thiéry D, Escobar-Gutiérrez AJ, Gachet E, Desneux N,  (2019, August). Alternatives to neonicotinoids. Science Direct. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019302351?via%3Dihub

Lindwall, C. (2022, May). Neonicotinoids 101: The effects on humans and bees. NRCD. https://www.nrdc.org/stories/neonicotinoids-101-effects-humans-and-bees

Van Deynze B, Swinton SM, Hennessy DA, Haddad NM, Ries L (2024, June) Insecticides, more than herbicides, land use, and climate, are associated with declines in butterfly species richness and abundance in the American Midwest. PLoS ONE 19(6): e0304319. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0304319

Tallgrass Prairie – A Bird’s Eye View

by Dan Haug | Jul 13, 2023

The tallgrass prairie once covered 170 million acres, and at the 2023 North American Prairie Conference, I was reminded of that continental scale. Between assisting presenters with technology, I heard sessions about protecting orchids in the aspen-prairie parkland of Manitoba, time lapse photography along the Platte River in Nebraska, beetles in the prairies of Alabama’s “Black Belt”, restoring spring wildflowers on the Kankakee Sands of Indiana, and building out the native seed supply chain in South Dakota, as well as lots of good information from friends and colleagues in Iowa. The following are a few insights I picked up from the conference, written from a bird’s perspective.

Hi, I’m an eastern meadowlark (Sturnella magna). I grew up in the tallgrass prairie, but I’m not picky about the species composition of my grassland habitat. I was the most common bird in Iowa for a century after the prairie sod was broken, making a good living in hayfields and hedgerows. Things didn’t get really bad for me until the second half of the twentieth century, when most Iowa farms dropped alfalfa, hay and small grains in favor of corn and soybean production at ever larger scales. That conversion is also the root of the nitrate problems in Iowa’s rivers.

But the flip side of that is that grassland generalists like me don’t need a perfectly authentic prairie to make a comeback. A food system that included more pasture and forage crops to raise animals could make a big difference for wildlife, water, and the vitality of rural communities.

For more on this concept, see the University of Wisconsin’s “Grassland 2.0” project, which is reimagining a food system that provides the ecological functions of prairie. The new book “Tending Iowa’s Land” edited by Connie Mutel comes to the same conclusion: the book introduces Iowa’s four worst environmental crises with a combination of science and stories, explains their historical roots, and outlining visions for a more sustainable future. Laura Jackson’s presentation also provided inspiration for this article.