Tracy Loew

Statesman Journal

Oregon regulators are investigating the first mass bee die-off of the year.

Residents of a north Eugene apartment complex found sidewalks littered with dead and dying bees on Tuesday, said Rose Kachadoorian, pesticide regulatory specialist for the state Department of Agriculture. The residents said trees at the complex had been sprayed on Monday.

An ODA investigator was at the site Wednesday collecting bees, tree leaves and flowers for testing, Kachadoorian said.

"We will consider this a number one priority," she said.

The bees may have died from misapplication of pesticides, but there could be natural causes as well, she said.

The incident comes during "National Pollinator Week," so designated by the U.S. Senate seven years ago to raise awareness that bees, butterflies and bats are necessary for 90 percent of flowering plants to reproduce.

Pollinators are responsible for one out of three bites of food that we eat, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says. And both native and domesticated populations are declining.

The incident also comes exactly a year after 50,000 dead bumblebees were found in a Wilsonville Target parking lot, one of three incidents last summer where a Portland-area company misapplied pesticides, killing pollinators.

All of the cases involved neonicotinoids, a class of pesticides that can harm bees if used improperly.

The Wilsonville die-off, one of the largest recorded nationwide, spurred calls for tighter restriction of neonicotinoid pesticides and prompted the Oregon Legislature to form a task force to study improving pollinator health and avoiding similar incidents.

The Joint Interim Task Force on Pollinator Health will hold its first meeting at 10:30 a.m. June 30 at the Capitol.

It will study pesticide regulation, public education and outreach, and best practices for pesticide management. It is expected to submit a report to the legislature by Oct. 1 that could recommend legislation for the 2015 session.

ODA also has been working on several fronts during the past year, Kachadoorian said.

The state forced manufacturers to change the labels, as a condition of Oregon registration, on 160 products containing two neonicotinoids – dinotefuran and imidacloprid – to state that they can't be used on linden trees, which causes a special danger to bees.

At least two companies, including Bayer, voluntarily made the changes nationwide as a result, Kachadoorian said.

Oregon officials also worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to change labels on more than 800 pesticide products nationwide.

The state has updated its pesticide applicator exam to include many more questions about pollinator protection, Kachadoorian said. It has developed outreach material, put out newsletter articles, and done presentations about pollinator health.

"We really did respond to what happened last year," she said. "Everybody was deeply concerned."

tloew@statesmanjournal.com, (503) 399-6779 or follow at Twitter.com/SJWatchdog

Learn more

Find more information about pesticides and pollinators at Oregon Department of Agriculture.