Education For Environmental Responsibility

Pollinators and Pesticide Stewardship

View Cover | Download | Order

Pesticides play an important role in controlling insects, weeds, and diseases on farms and in urban landscapes. The areas treated for pests are often shared by pollinators which are attracted to blooming flowers for pollen and nectar. These pollinators can include not only honey bees but other insects such as butterflies, beetles, wasps and flies, and also birds and bats.

Pollinator habitat includes both crop and non-crop areas. Pollinators are attracted to a variety of blooming flowers on crops, trees, shrubs, weeds, and native vegetation, and may visit multiple plant species for nectar and pollen throughout the growing season. In forested and other natural areas, pollinators assist in the production of fruits and seeds that are essential to the diets of wildlife such as small and large mammals and especially migratory birds and game birds. In addition to European honey bees, there are more than 4000 bee species and various other pollinators in the United States.

Most pesticides are not toxic to honey bees and other insect pollinators. As a general rule, insecticides are more toxic to pollinators than fungicides and herbicides, but not all insecticides are toxic to pollinators. This brochure provides guidelines to follow before treating an area with pesticides when pollinators are present.

Download Booklet (PDF)

NOTE: For high quality copies of this publication, please use the order form below.

This is a large file (1 MB). We do not recommend downloading without the use of a broadband connection.

TIP: For Internet Explorer RIGHT-CLICK on the "Download" button and select "Save Target As..." from the pull-down menu. Then download to your computer.

For Netscape RIGHT-CLICK on the "Download" button and select "Save Link Target As..." from the pull-down menu. Then download to your computer.

Note: In order to view the PDF files available for download on this page, Adobe Acrobat Reader is required. Click the logo below to go to the Adobe site and get Acrobat Reader.

Order Copies

Thank you for your interest in the booklet. To offset printing and development costs we are asking private, for-profit enterprises to pay for quantities over 15.

Non-profit groups, universities, and government agencies may receive additional copies free of charge.

Order Form