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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Cole Rizki <colerizki AT gmail.com>, OCBA Listserv <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Bee-friendly weed killers?
  • Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2016 12:10:51 -0400

By no means would I want to discourage alternative weed killers if they are effective and have few spill-over effects on non-target species, but in the interest of genuine education I need to point out that it is a myth that Roundup kills honey bees. Myths often die hard and travel faster and farther than truth.

The Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS -- detailed product specs) for Roundup says:
Arthropod toxicity
Honey bee (Apis mellifera):
Contact, 48 hours, LD50: > 250 μg/bee
Practically non-toxic.
Honey bee (Apis mellifera):
Oral, 48 hours, LD50: > 238.8 μg/bee
Practically non-toxic.
This is a sensitive subject and I'm afraid it may kick off a hailstorm (I hope not!), but any cause that is worth fighting for is worth fighting for using facts, not opinions or myth.

Randall Austin

On 8/18/2016 11:31 AM, Cole Rizki wrote:
586F7A94-4B6F-4D1E-9E5A-927610D22DF2 AT gmail.com" type="cite">
Hi all,

I was finally able to convince my neighbor not to spray roundup all over his yard to kill tough weeds (+1 for the bees!), but he wants to spray something as an alternative and I don't know what to tell him. Does anyone use anything in their yard that is very effective, organic, pesticide free and will not harm chickens or bees? 

Thanks for your help,
Cole

Sent from my iPhone
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