Innovations

Nowak says Neonics are a Safe Pesticide Solution

Neonicotinoid is not a common household name, but they are certainly used frequently around the home and farm. Neonicotinoids, also known as neonics, are a relatively new class of insecticides that share a common mode of action that affect the central nervous system of insects, resulting in paralysis and death.

“Neonics are very valuable to the grower,” says Pete Nowak, Principal of AgInfomatics LLC. “They’re a safe, convenient product that growers put a lot of credibility in. Third, I think that growers are frustrated that people would even be talking about taking away neonics because it would force them to go back to pyrethords and oraganaphosphates which involves spraying these older, hotter chemistries on the plant and to them it makes no sense at all. If you’re worried about pollenators, why you would want to go backwards?”

Nowak says that the predecessors to neonics were far more dangerous to plants and to pollenators than the neonics used in today’s farming practices. But farming isn’t the only place you’ll see neonics. It is also commonly used in flea treatments for canine health.

“That flea treatment that they put along the backbone of the dog is a systemic nematode or a neonic that goes inside that dog and only if a flea bites the dog,” Nowak says.

Nowak says neonics are very safe and are used around households frequently. Now, farmers are taking advantage of the opportunity and applying this same technology out in the field. These technologies have been proven as the safer solution that other pesticides used in the past.

“Those were not the good old days compared to what we’ve got now and please don’t bring back those days,” Nowak says. “ I think that’s the message the EPA has got to hear if they’re really concerned about safety, if they’re concerned about the environment. What farmers are telling us now is that neonics are doing the job, don’t take them away.”

For more information and study results about neonics, visit www.growingmatters.org.

AUDIO: Pete Nowak (6:48 mp3)

  • Neonicotinoids are damaging the environment by killing none target insects such as bees and have polluted rivers and streams. They need to be banned!

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