Last month, Mike The Owl Box Man, showed us how dangerous it is to put poison out for rodents. Owls suffer from secondary poisoning after eating those rodents and other poisoned prey. He asked us to stop using poison and consider using humane animal traps.
At his talk, Lourens shared the story of a situation that resulted in the loss of 14 hives.
A farmer sprayed a cocktail of poisons on his land. When Lourens and Dylan next went to service their hives on this farm – they found devastation. The winds blew this poison in the direction of the Cape Honey Bee Conservancy hives. The bees were dead. The 14 hives had to be destroyed. This was tragic and a significant loss for CHBC.
In the Wild’nFree Infograpic at the end of this newsletter, they also call on us to stop using poisons and pesticides.
Who sprays in our community? Home-owners? Municipality? Do they understand the ripple effects of poison?
If preventing the use of poison within our community is an issue that you are concerned about, please contact us on bettysbayconservancy@gmail.com. Perhaps we can work on an education campaign.
Carol Clark