“Many of the issues we see with pesticide misapplications really come down to communication — essentially an applicator not necessarily knowing what a beekeeper is doing and vice versa,” Bayer Industry Affairs Lead Frank Wong said in the latest episode of the BeSure! campaign from the Growing Matters Coalition. The episode details the importance of growers and beekeepers being on the same page.
“It’s hard to wrangle bees and keep them under control. It’s kind of like herding cats a little bit. So I think there are some extra precautions we need to take and just be mindful of what’s going on,” Wong noted.
There are many ways to keep the communication flowing between the two groups. Wong said there isn’t a perfect formula for every situation, but there are a lot of avenues to keep the flow of communication open. “It’s challenging and I don’t have a silver bullet, so to speak,” he said. “The industry has some really great tools like DriftWatch and BeeCheck … community interactions, grass-roots talking to people, social media. There are lots of ways to communicate if you are up for it.”
Listen to Wong’s full interview.
This was a message from the BeSure campaign brought to you by the Growing Matters Coalition, an initiative reminding farmers and applicators to follow stewardship best practices to protect pollinators and other wildlife. Visit growingmatters.org for more information.
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