<div dir="auto"><span class="s1" style="font-size:17px">Eight years ago, during Pollinator Week 2013, a pesticide poisoning incident unfurled that turned out to be the largest documented kill of bumble bees in the US. Linden trees (</span><span class="s2" style="font-size:17px;font-style:italic">Tilia</span><span class="s1" style="font-size:17px"> sp.) in the parking lot of a big box store in Wilsonville, OR, had been treated with dinotefuran, a neonicotinoid. This was expressed in the trees’ nectar, resulting in the tarmac being carpeted with thousands of dying bumble bees. </span><br></div><div dir="auto"><p class="p1" style="margin:0px;font-stretch:normal;font-size:17px;line-height:normal;min-height:20.3px"><span class="s1"></span><br></p><p class="p2" style="margin:0px;font-stretch:normal;font-size:17px;line-height:normal"><span class="s1">The Oregon Department of Agriculture investigated, and established a link between the treatment and the bumble bee deaths</span></p><p class="p1" style="margin:0px;font-stretch:normal;font-size:17px;line-height:normal;min-height:20.3px"><span class="s1"></span><br></p><p class="p2" style="margin:0px;font-stretch:normal;font-size:17px;line-height:normal"><span class="s1">An article about the incident has just been published in </span><span class="s2" style="font-style:italic">Environmental Entomology</span><span class="s1">.</span></p><p class="p1" style="margin:0px;font-stretch:normal;font-size:17px;line-height:normal;min-height:20.3px"><span class="s1"></span><br></p><p class="p2" style="margin:0px;font-stretch:normal;font-size:17px;line-height:normal"><span class="s1">Neonicotinoid Pesticides Cause Mass Fatalities of Native Bumble Bees: A Case Study From Wilsonville, Oregon, United States</span></p><p class="p2" style="margin:0px;font-stretch:normal;font-size:17px;line-height:normal"><span class="s1"><a href="https://academic.oup.com/ee/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ee/nvab059/6305931">https://academic.oup.com/ee/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ee/nvab059/6305931</a></span></p><p class="p1" style="margin:0px;font-stretch:normal;font-size:17px;line-height:normal;min-height:20.3px"><span class="s1"></span><br></p><p class="p2" style="margin:0px;font-stretch:normal;font-size:17px;line-height:normal"><span class="s1">From the abstract:</span></p><p class="p2" style="margin:0px;font-stretch:normal;font-size:17px;line-height:normal"><span class="s1">“we estimate that between 45,830 and 107,470 bumble bees originating from between 289 and 596 colonies were killed during this event.”</span></p><p class="p2" style="margin:0px;font-stretch:normal;font-size:17px;line-height:normal"><span class="s1">“the minimum reported dinotefuran concentration of a sampled T. cordata flower was 7.4 ppm, or in excess of 737% above the LC50 of the beneficial pollinator, the honey bee”</span></p><p class="p1" style="margin:0px;font-stretch:normal;font-size:17px;line-height:normal;min-height:20.3px"><span class="s1"></span><br></p><p class="p2" style="margin:0px;font-stretch:normal;font-size:17px;line-height:normal"><span class="s1">Matthew</span></p></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">Matthew Shepherd<br>Director of Communications & Outreach<br>(he/him/his)<br><br>THE XERCES SOCIETY<br>for Invertebrate Conservation<br><br>Protecting the life that sustains us<br><br>---------------<br>Sent from my iPhone</div>