Do you think seed coating with neonicotinoids should be banned altogether?
Nothing justifies coating maize seeds, really. It makes no sense. Some researchers from the University of Padua in Italy have carried out a five-year study showing that coating maize seeds have no positive effect on plants. This appears to be the case in a typical single crop system, for instance, where certain insects cannot develop as they would within a crop rotation system. On the contrary, coating beetroot and potato seeds can be very useful and causes no harm to bees. What about bees sucking dew contaminated with neonicotinoids? Professor Vincenzo Girolami from the University of Padua carried out a yet unpublished, wonderful study about the devastating effects on bees of neonicotinoids being exuded by maize leaves. It shows that a bee sucking this poisoned dew drops dead on the spot within 20 seconds flat. Long-leaved plants exude tiny droplets of water in the morning. Well, Professor Girolami grew plants from neonicotinoid-coated maize seeds and observed that the concentration o
