Bees and other pollinators as well as beneficial predatory insects are suffering from increased urbanization, as well as the use of pesticides in agriculture, landscaping, and vector control, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Environment Fund (SVGEF) has warned.
As a result, the SVGEF says it is grateful that there has been a ban on the aerial spraying of bananas, noting that the move has been critical in saving the bees and the butterflies.
“It is only anecdotal evidence but I do believe we have all noticed an increase in the presence of both bees and butterflies since the ban on aerial spraying,” said SVGEF’s executive director Louise Mitchell.
Addressing the three-day 11th Caribbean Beekeeping Congress, Mitchell said the frequent use of the chemical malathion to combat mosquito-borne diseases “may well serve to counteract/nullify some of the benefits that the ban on aerial spraying of bananas may have achieved.
“This is a matter of concern to the SVGEF and leads us to raise a series of questions that have relevance in this forum,” Mitchell said, adding, “we ask the question, is fogging using this chemical the best that we can do to address the issue of mosquitos?
“Have there been any studies on the possible harmful impacts of this chemical to beneficial predatory insects and indeed to humans? Is there awareness of the fact that the use of malathion has been banned in the European Union because it is deemed harmful to pollinators?”
She said reducing beneficial insects, such as dragonflies, Jack Spaniards (paper wasps), ladybugs, butterflies, and bees, which were “arguably all more prevalent in our childhoods” has a ripple effect through the entire ecosystem.
“A dragonfly can eat hundreds of mosquitos in one day,” and Mitchell said it is the hope of SVGEF that one of the outcomes of this congress “is an examination into the effects of fogging and possible better biological solutions, which would provide better long-term solutions that are less harmful to human health”.
SVGEF, which is part of the Conservation Collective network of environment funds worldwide established by Ben Goldsmith, was a sponsor of the Bee Keeping Congress 2022, which was hosted by the SVG Beekeepers Association.
CMC/
