Amid ominous warnings about threats to pollinators and the food crops they make possible, garden-care giant Ortho said Tuesday it will stop using a class of chemicals widely believed to harm the most important pollinators of all: bees.
The company plans to phase out chemicals known as neonicotinoids by 2021 in eight of its products used to control pests and diseases.
Ortho is believed to be the first garden products brand to announce it will stop using the chemicals, said Lori Ann Burd, director of the Environmental Health Program at the Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson.
She called it “fantastic news.”
The chemicals, called neonics for short, attack the central nervous systems of insects, killing them or making them vulnerable to predators and deadly diseases.
Neonics and other pesticides, along with disease and declining diversity in gardens and landscapes, are among the causes of declining bee populations worldwide, a United Nations study said.
Ortho will phase out neonicotinoids in three products for roses, flowers, trees and shrubs by 2017 and in other products later, said Tim Martin, the firm’s vice president and general manager.
