I would definitely like to see them banned for the present until they can prove that they aren't going to be damaging.
Neonicotinoids aren't just on corn. They are on soybeans. They are used on every other crop out there that's sprayed or drenched. For potatoes, they can do the seed or whatever. It's causing a problem.
At the moment, what's happening with the corn, because of the way it's planted, is that the cloud that's coming up behind the seeders—I have a couple of pictures of that—is quite a cloud. If there's any kind of air movement, the reports we're getting say that it will drift several miles. Then it contaminates every other flowering plant in the area. You have a lethal dose that will kill the bees, or you have a sublethal dose that's going to affect their abilities in the things they do. Some of the reports I've read say that it affects the sperm count. It affects the DNA of the insects. We aren't sure what the long term is.
We were looking at about 4,000 queens to sell to beekeepers across Canada and the U.S. We'd be able to mark them up, especially for the U.S., because they want a queen that's winter hardy and is gentle and isn't connected to the Africanized bee. We've had that. Now we are concerned about what's going to happen to our operation. It went from about 1,000 hives down to 350. To produce queens was a different type of income, as we looked at retirement and seeing as some of our family wanted to carry on in that line.
We're not sure where that's going to leave us.