Hello everyone! Patrick Jones here with NCDA&CS Pesticide Section. I have met many of you over the years at various bee meetings. I wanted to extend an invitation to all of you for someone from our Section to address your local chapter and update them on the progress of the North Carolina Pollinator Protection Plan and new pesticide labels. We would also like to hear your feedback and suggestions on various proposals within the plan, including how to identify “Bee Awareness Zones” or the area around your apiary. For notification of potential pesticide applications, we are considering something similar to Mississippi “Bee Aware” Flag (see http://www.mississippi-crops.com/2014/03/26/bee-aware-flags-ready-for-distribution/ for more information) or a secured website that shows the approximate location of the apiary. We are very aware of the limitations and concerns of both ideas – and that is why we need to address the local chapters and hear their concerns.
If you attended the NC/SC Beekeepers Association meeting you will remember the Pollinator Survey that we distributed. We had 141 surveys completed at the meeting. We would like to get more responses back from beekeepers. So if you could help get the word out to beekeepers about the survey all across the state it would be great! The web link to the survey can be found at: http://www.ncagr.gov/SPCAP/pesticides/surveys/pollinator/index.htm. The survey is a certified anonymous survey and the data can only be viewed by a few staff members. It is very easy to answer the questions with a click of your mouse. The printable version of the survey may be found at the link below if you would rather print the survey and have members fill it out.
You could then return the surveys to me at:
J. Patrick Jones
Structural Pest Control and Pesticides Division
North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
1090 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1090
We are developing a “Bee” page on our Pesticide Section Website – it can be found at http://www.ncagr.gov/SPCAP/pesticides/bee/. It is under construction – you can watch it grow in time. We will add many useful links and resources to this page. The NCDA&CS Pollinator Page can be found at http://www.ncagr.gov/pollinators/.
The Pollinator Plan development task force is comprised of individuals from NCDA&CS – Pesticide Section and the Apiary Services, NCSU, North Carolina Farm Bureau and various commodity groups. We look forward to sharing the information with you over the next few months and we need your feedback as we further develop the plan.