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Lessons From The Birds And Bees... And From The Bats And Frogs, Too
Seven decades of using pesticides to grow food has devastated populations worldwide of our traditional agricultural helpers: birds, bees, frogs and bats.
Although toxic chemicals have been implicated as a root cause in their slide towards oblivion, the chemicals continue to be pumped into the environment. As a result, we may soon find food production completely dependent on pesticides, the opportunity to farm organically eliminated and widespread food shortages a reality.
Many of the pesticides most toxic to birds are already banned or restricted. Yet the killing goes on. A case in point is the barn owl, which has a huge appetite for crop-destroying gophers.
Once the most widespread raptor in the nation, the stealthy nighttime killer is fading away--often the victim of organophosphate insecticides that also affect the nerves and brains of humans.
These chemicals cause disorientation in raptors that can lead them to crash into windows or get electrocuted on power lines. Though the cause of these deaths is often pesticide "intoxication," experts say this factor is rarely investigated or reported to authorities who might rein in the pesticide use.
- Bees Stung -
Or consider two insect-killers recently introduced to the market that government scientists say are poisoning vast numbers of bees, prompting the U.S. Department of Agriculture to declare an "impending pollination crisis" affecting an astonishing one-third of our food supply.
Residues of these two insecticides, imidacloprid and clothianiden, are absorbed into plants grown from coated seeds and move into nectar at levels that cause reproductive problems, impaired foraging ability and altered memory and brain metabolism in exposed bees.
What’s more, when the chemicals intermingle with fungicides, the toxicity increases more than a thousand-fold, a likely occurrence since both groups of chemicals are used in many of the same agricultural settings.
Also being poisoned are bats. Long misunderstood and feared, these flying mammals are another critical component of food production that have suffered population losses from chemicals.
Their exposure often occurs via pesticide-tainted insects, lots of them, since bats eat almost their body weight in insects each night. The same organophosphate insecticides that affect raptors have been found in the bodies of bats and may be the actual cause of many "accidental" deaths.
In addition, newer pesticides may be the underlying cause of a fungus that’s killing off immune-weakened bats in the northeastern U.S. Researchers have found that intestinal bacteria necessary for digestion are reduced or non-existent in infected bats--a possible effect of recently developed pesticides. Proving this link will take time, and bats meanwhile are disappearing at an alarming rate.
- Frogs Croaking Fast -
Perhaps worst off of all are frogs, which are dying off more rapidly than any other animal. Their crucial role in controlling insect populations and their precipitous decline correlates with an increase in insect pests of food crops.
Ironically, insecticides are among the chemicals responsible for much of the frog’s demise. Several pesticides have dire effects on frogs at concentrations commonly found in the environment. One is the organophosphate malathion, which indirectly decimates tadpole populations by altering their food chain.
Frog populations have been found to be reduced downwind of organophosphate applications in California. Even herbicides are deadly: atrazine dramatically affects the sexual development of male frogs, turning them into hermaphrodites, and glyphosate (in "Round-Up") has been deemed "extremely lethal" to frogs.
While pesticides have been shown to have dire effects on animals and bugs so vital to food production, human efforts to stop use of these chemicals may be too slow to stave off extinctions around the world.
