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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.

My husband is a chemist, and nothing makes him madder faster than some Luddite idiot railing about "organic" this and "organic" that.

"Deadly nightshade is 'organic' - nerve gas is 'organic' - everything with a carbon atom in it is organic!" he exclaims, and adds "You idiot" under his breath.

[..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.]

Back some 30+ years ago, I recall accompanying my Granddad while he was deploying nicotine bug-bombs in the family business' greenhouses.

Chlorinated neo-nicotinoids however, are relatively new, and unnatural. The chlorination means the attached nicotine molecule don't break down in the target system (the nervous system of the insect); making it a sort of super-nicotine... which latches on to the nicotine receptor and, because it can't be broken down, stays latched.

The nicotine receptor then continues transmitting until depleted, and no longer able to do so.

Let me know when bees fall dead after visiting a tobacco field.

Moderation, yes, but meanwhile organic stuff plain tastes better, too, and that’s enough to warrant a modest price increment for the chef in me. But each of us is different, with different sensitivities. I have a neurological problem that makes me more sensitive to insecticides than most folks, so there’s another reason. If non-organic works for you, great.