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I observed plenty of bees this year in Colorado. Between the bees and the ants, nothing in my garden went un-pollinated. I’ve got more squash and tomatoes than I know what to do with.

Also observed plenty of bees in the wild.

So relax people.

While we should, perhaps, be questioning the wisdom of dumping these long-acting neo-nicitinoids into the environment, it’s not the end of the world.

Panic and Crisis is what the enemy wants; so Hold Fast and do not give them what they desire.

While we should, perhaps, be questioning the wisdom of dumping these long-acting neo-nicitinoids into the environment,

I called into an organic gardening show once where the host and callers were railing on these "terrible chemicals."

I thanked him by saying that he had helped me a few years back by recommending a "tobacco tea" as a natural pesticide. He thanked me for my thanks.

ThenI continued about how aren't nicitinoids and pyretherins just more narrow-band focused refinements of wide-band, nuclear-strength 'natural' poisons?

Uh, well, yes he said....but he doesn't recommend them anymore.

And I said, "So really we get back to the fact that no matter what it is, it's got to be about moderation...and some of the very 'natural' and 'organic truths' he's pushing now might be just as misguided and harmful to the environment as the mistakes he was making in the past without realizing it.

Bless his heart, he didn't hang up, but you could tell it really hurt his feelings because the wingnuts really do think that fanaticism in the name of 'green' is good, no matter what the actual cost or result.

I live in Oregon on the banks of a river festooned with blackberry bushes, and I raise tomatoes, melons and roses. This year was horrible when it came to bees pollinating my plants...there were virtually none flying around, maybe ten or fifteen compared to literally hundreds and hundreds in years past.