Make lawns bee-friendly
It’s not just certain agricultural pesticides such as the neonicotinoids that are deadly to bees and native pollinators (“Bee group hails call for pesticide ban,” June 26).
Pesticides permitted under HRM’s pesticide bylaw and provincial legislation for use on lawns are equally lethal: pyrethrins, sometime used for control of chinch bug, are broad spectrum pesticides, and chelated iron compounds used to control broad-leaf weeds, e.g. Fiesta, kill off flowering plants such as clover that otherwise support pollinators.
At the least, we should ban their use on public property, including verges (the strip of grass between sidewalks and the street).
David Patriquin, Halifax
via VOICE OF THE PEOPLE | June 30, 2014 | The Chronicle Herald.
