Hi Gang, The recent news about honey bee colony collapse disorder and imidacloprid is interesting. We know for sure that pesticides can have unintended effects, but imidacloprid is fairly new and maybe still an "unknown." It would be sad if it were causing problems worldwide. A colleague recently told me an interesting story about imidacloprid and its use in Brazil. Citrus greening disease is a serious economic problem in Brazil, Asia, and now the USA. The bacterium that causes the problem is spread by an insect (Asian citrus psyllid). The insects have spread around the world to many places where citrus trees are grown and they are spreading the bacterium (and hence the disease). My colleague reported (anecdotally) that one of the controls (in Brazil) that is keeping the disease under control is based upon the treatment of huge tracts of citrus trees with imidacloprid; repeated applications of the insecticide controls the psyllids and hence prevents them from spreading the bacterium from tree to tree. I don't know if the story about massive applications of imidacloprid to citrus groves in Brazil is true. However, in this country, nurseries are encouraged to produce clean nursery stock through the use of systemic insecticides (and by other means as well). Additionally, imidacloprid is widely used on many other crops. I did not find information about total imidacloprid use in the US, or worldwide; perhaps such information is pre-tabulated and easily obtained. I did find numbers for California in 2005. The report stated that 163, 618 lb of imidacloprid was used over 1,200,738 acres. The largest single use was for structural pest control (control of termites). Lettuce crops got the most imidacloprid, but grapes were high on the list as well as cotton and "general" vegetables as well as citrus crops. I think the data is for agricultural use and does not include home use, use on ornamentals around buildings, or turf use. I suspect total use was much greater than 1-2 million acres. Biology and nature are complicated; when you toss in agriculture and horticulture who knows what will result. Overall, you and I probably eat imidacloprid as a trace component of many vegetables and fruits. I hope colony collapse disorder is not caused by imidacloprid, and if so I hope humans don't acquire that particular problem. Cordially, Joe Conroe TX LINK: Asian Citrus Psyllid http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8205.pdf LINK: Citrus Greening (Huanglongbing disease) http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/CG086/ LINK: California Pesticide Use (2005), Imidacloprid http://pesticideinfo.org/Detail_ChemUse.jsp/…