Does a little bit of lawn fertilizer or Roundup really hurt birds that are just passing through?
Too often, birds die from contact with chemicals on suburban lawns. Homeowners in the United States apply about 78 million pounds of insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides per year to their homes, lawns, and gardens—not including applications made by pest control or lawn care professionals. On a per acre basis, this is three times more pesticides than the amount used on agricultural crops. David Pimentel, professor of entomology at Cornell University, estimates that about 72 million birds die each year as a result of direct exposure to pesticides on agricultural lands, and an estimated additional 7 million die each year from lawn chemicals. Pesticides can wash into rivers and streams, blow into neighboring areas, and seep into the groundwater. They also persist in soil and garden litter, and are readily tracked into our homes. Lawn and garden fertilizers run off into waterways, spurring algae blooms in streams, lakes, and ponds, which decreases the oxygen levels within these critical
