Reading a pesticide label is a bit like plunging headlong into a foreign language, one with a fast-changing vocabulary. For example: neonicotinoids.
They're a relatively new class of pesticides, favored now because they cause less toxicity in birds and mammals than insects. But that's not good news for pollinators.
Two pesticide experts join us to translate what neonic pesticides mean for the insects who actually help plants grow. Aimée Code is Pesticide Program Director for The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Dr. Susan Kegley heads up the Pesticide Research Institute. They join us in advance of speaking at the OSU Extension Service's pollinator forum on February 11.