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Neonicotinoids are a new class of insecticides chemically related to nicotine. The name literally means "new nicotine-like insecticides". Like nicotine, the neonicotinoids act on certain kinds of receptors in the nerve synapse. They are much more toxic to invertebrates, like insects, than they are to mammals, birds and other higher organisms.

One thing that has made neonicotinoid insecticides popular in pest control is their water solubility, which allows them to be applied to soil and be taken up by plants. Soil insecticide applications reduce the risks for insecticide drift from the target site, and for at least some beneficial insects on plants.

There are several different kinds of neonicotinoid insecticides. The first neonicotinoid to reach the market was imidacloprid, a common ingredient in Bayer Advanced Garden insecticides. This product can be sprayed on the plant, but is often more effective (especially on sucking insects) when applied to the soil. Dinotefuran (Safari) is another, more highly water-soluble, neonicotinoid that is especially good on sap-feeding insects.

To find out whether an insecticide you see on the shelf of your hardware, pest control supply or garden center is a neonicotinoid, look on the list of active ingredients. If you see one of the following names listed, the insecticide includes a neonicotinoid:

In addition to being effective against sap-feeding pests, neonicotinoids provide good control against certain beetles (like white grub larvae in lawns), fleas (Advantage flea control products, and nitenpyram pills for pets), certain wood boring pests, flies (fly baits), cockroaches and others.
Environmental concerns
Initially neonicotinoids were praised for their low-toxicity to many beneficial insects, including bees; however recently this claim has come into question. New research points to potential toxicity to bees and other beneficial insects through low level contamination of nectar and pollen with neonicotinoid insecticides used in agriculture. Although these low level exposures do not normally kill bees directly, they may impact some bees' ability to foraging for nectar, learn and remember where flowers are located, and possibly impair their ability to find their way home to the nest or hive. Despite the controlled studies completed to date, the actual impact of neonicotinoid insecticides on honey bees in the field are difficult to measure. It is still not known whether these effects explain bee colony collapse disorder, or have had any effect in agriculture or, especially, in urban areas.

The relative infrequency with which bees are expected to encounter neonicotinoid insecticides in urban landscapes suggest that the impact of these insecticides in backyard gardens, when used appropriately, is probably minor. To keep risk to bees and other beneficials low, however, a few simple steps should be taken: (1) follow the label directions carefully, (2) restrict neonicotine applications to the soil, or during times when bees are not foraging (e.g., in the evening), and (3) treat only those individual plants which need treatment for a known pest infestation.

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What is a neonicotinoid? - Insects in the City

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Neonicotinoids are a new class of insecticides chemically related to nicotine. The name literally means "new nicotine-like insecticides". Like nicotine, the neonicotinoids act on certain kinds of receptors in the nerve synapse.

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Newsela | The honeybee has taken flight from the Cheerios box to sound a bee alert

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A number of major companies have stepped up to try and reverse a declining bee population.

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Newsela | Study: One pesticide doesn't harm bees, but two do

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from UC Santa Barbara

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Center for Pollinator Research (Penn State University)

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What are pollinators?
Pollinators are animals that move pollen from male structures (anthers) of flowers to the female structure (stigma) of the same plant species. Movement of pollen (analogous to sperm) to a flower's stigma results in fertilization of the flower's eggs. An adequately fertilized flower will produce seeds and the fruit surrounding seeds, ensuring that a new generation of plants can be grown.

Pollination is mutually beneficial to plants and to pollinators. Pollination results in the production of seeds and is necessary for many plants to reproduce. Meanwhile, pollinators receive nectar and/or pollen rewards from the flowers that they visit. Sugary nectar provides pollinators with carbohydrates while pollen offers proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and necessary phytochemicals. See [1] for a recent review of bee nutritional needs.

Examples of pollinators
Honey bees often come to mind first when people think of pollinators. However, many different animals, including other insects (other bee species, butterflies, beetles, flies), some birds and some bats are pollinators. Indeed, there are an estimated 300,000 species of flowering plants worldwide that require animal pollinators [2]. This tremendous floral variety supports a corresponding diversity of pollinators, and the vast majority of these pollinators are insects. For example, while there are only about 1,000 vertebrate pollinator species, it's estimated that there are at least 16,000 different species of bees world-wide [3].

Pollinators are necessary for three-quarters of our major food crops
Not every species of plant requires animal-mediated pollination services. For example, wheat is wind-pollinated. However, the majority of crops that we like most to eat and provide most of our nutrition (fruits, vegetables, and nuts) use animal-mediated pollination [4, 5]. Without pollinators, our diets would be severely limited, and it would be more difficult to acquire the variety of vitamins and minerals that we need to stay healthy.

Healthy pollinators and healthy ecosystems
Outside of agricultural systems, approximately 80-95% of the plant species found in natural habitats require animal-mediated pollination [2]. Plants are the foundation of terrestrial food chains. The foliage and/or fruits and nuts that plants make are eaten by herbivores which in turn are hunted by predators. Furthermore, plants provide shelter and nesting habitat for many different animal species. Thus, in order to maintain the diversity of our natural ecosystems, we need healthy pollinator populations to ensure that the next generation of plants will be produced.

[1] Vaudo, A. D, Tooker, J.F., Grozinger, C.M. and H.M. Patch. " Bee nutrition and floral resource restoration." Current Opinion in Insect Science 10:133-141 (2015).

[2] Ollerton J, Winfree R, Tarrant S: How many flowering plants are pollinated by animals? Oikos 2011, 120(3):321-326.

[3] Danforth BN, Sipes S, Fang J, Brady SG: The history of early bee diversification based on five genes plus morphology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2006, 103(41):15118-15123.

[4] Klein, A-M, et al. " The importance of pollinators in changing landscapes for world crops". Proceedings of the Royal Society B 274 (1608): 303-313.

[5] Eilers, E.J. et al. " Contribution of Pollinator-Mediated Crops to Nutrients in the Human Food Supply" PLoS One 6(6): e21363. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021363

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What are pollinators and why do we need them? (Center for Pollinator Research)

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Pollinators are animals (primarily insect, but sometimes avian or mammalian) that fertilize plants, resulting in the formation of seeds and the fruit surrounding seeds. Humans and other animals rely on pollinators to produce nuts and fruits that are essential components of a healthy diet.

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Pollinators, wildflowers, and the environment

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Pollinators, wildflowers, and the environment

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Breadcrumb

1. Home

2. Celebrating Wildflowers

Virtually all of the world's seed plants need to be pollinated. This is just as true for cone-bearing plants, such as pine trees, as for the more colorful and familiar flowering plants. Pollen, looking like insignificant yellow dust, bears a plant's male sex cells and is a vital link in the reproductive cycle.

With adequate pollination, wildflowers:

Reproduce and produce enough seeds for dispersal and propagation

Maintain genetic diversity within a population

Develop adequate fruits to entice seed dispersers

The Simple Truth: We Can't Live Without Them!

Pollination is not just fascinating natural history. It is an essential ecological survival function. Without pollinators, the human race and all of earth's terrestrial ecosystems would not survive. Of the 1,400 crop plants grown around the world, i.e., those that produce all of our food and plant-based industrial products, almost 80% require pollination by animals. Visits from bees and other pollinators also result in larger, more flavorful fruits and higher crop yields. In the United States alone, pollination of agricultural crops is valued at 10 billion dollars annually. Globally, pollination services are likely worth more than 3 trillion dollars.

More than half of the world's diet of fats and oils come from animal-pollinated plants (oil palm, canola, sunflowers, etc.).

More than 150 food crops in the U.S. depend on pollinators, including almost all fruit and grain crops.

The USDA estimated that crops dependent on pollination are worth more than $10 billion per year.

Environmental Benefits of Pollination

Clean Air (Carbon Cycling/Sequestration)

Flowering plants produce breathable oxygen by utilizing the carbon dioxide produced by plants and animals as they respire. Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have been rapidly increasing in the last century, however, due to increased burning of fossil fuels and destruction of vital forests, the "earth's lungs." Pollinators are key to reproduction of wild plants in our fragmented global landscape. Without them, existing populations of plants would decline, even if soil, air, nutrients, and other life-sustaining elements were available.

Water and Soils

Flowering plants help to purify water and prevent erosion through roots that holds the soil in place, and foliage that buffers the impact of rain as it falls to the earth. The water cycle depends on plants to return moisture to the atmosphere, and plants depend on pollinators to help them reproduce.

Reference: Flowering Plants, Pollinators, and the Health of the Planet (Marinelli, 2005): Plant. 2005. Janet Marinelli, Editor in Chief. First American Edition. Dorling Kindersley Limited (DK Publishing, Inc.). New York. 512 Pages.

Cultural Importance of Pollination

Native Peoples traditionally recognized the importance of pollinators:

Cultural symbolism

Food plants

Medicinal plants

Plant-based dyes

We explore only a few examples of culturally important pollinators or pollinated plants here. To learn more about culturally important plants and pollinators:

"Ethnobotany" is the study of how people of a particular culture and region make use of indigenous (native) plants. Since their earliest origins, humans have depended on plants for their primary needs and existence. Plants provide food, medicine, shelter, dyes, fibers, oils,resins, gums, soaps, waxes, latex, tannins, and even contribute to the air we breathe. Many native peoples also used plants in ceremonial or spiritual rituals. Examining human life on earth requires understanding the role of plants in historical and current day cultures. Read more about Ethnobotany...

Culturally Significant Plants (PDF) - a Natural Resources Conservation Service Plant Material Program presentation.

Cultural Symbolism

Butterflies

Raven's spokesperson - Haida (Pacific NW)

Messenger (in dreams) from Great Spirit - Blackfoot

Earth's fertility - Hopi "Bulitikibi" harvest dance

Flame, Teotihuacan (Palace of the Butterfly) - Ancient Mexicans (Olmecs, Toltecs, later Aztecs)

Ancestor - Sumatra, Naga (Madagascar), Pima (N. America)

Related to Morning Star - Arapaho, Mexecal

Moths

'Tun tawu = "goes in and out of fire" - Cherokee (North America)

Symbol of knowledge, guardians of gold dust of eternity - Yaqui (Mexico)

Powder - insanity (moth-crazy, sexual excess, incest, aphrodisiac) - Navajo (North America)

Guardian of tobacco (caterpillar of Sphinx moth) - Navajo (North America)

Hummingbirds

Basket weaving teacher - Taroscan (Mexico)

Courier of gifts to Great Mother - Pueblo Indian Tribe

Convinced gods to bring rain - Hopi and Zuni Indian Tribes

Sun in disguise (courting the moon) - Maya

North American Pollinator Protection Campaign

"Our Future Flies on the Wings of Pollinators"
This poster is made available by the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Botanical Gardens, and the NAPPC (North American Pollinator Protection Campaign).
Artist: Paul Mirocha

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Home Celebrating Wildflowers Virtually all of the world's seed plants need to be pollinated. This is just as true for cone-bearing plants, such as pine trees, as for the more colorful and familiar flowering plants. Pollen, looking like insignificant yellow dust, bears a plant's male sex cells and is a vital link in the reproductive cycle.

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Article tells about pollinators and why they are important

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The Pollinator Partnership is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization and the largest in the world dedicated exclusively to the protection and promotion of pollinators ...