Has buzz died down?
Text 
No Comments [ Add Comment ]By JaNae Francis
Standard-Examiner staff
jfrancis@standard.net
Hooper farmer says mosquito spray killed his bees and alfalfa seed operation, so he may sue for compensation
HOOPER -- Local farmers are concerned mosquito abatement spraying may have killed bees necessary for pollination -- and one has threatened to sue if not compensated.
Stan Fowers said a 40-acre field he farms at 7500 W. 5500 South, Hooper, was sprayed July 15 by a mosquito-control crop duster commissioned by Weber County. He said the spraying killed his leafcutter bees, which pollinate his fields of alfalfa seed.
He valued the lost bees and unpollinated crops at $80,000 and said he has sought compensation for nearly eight months. He is compiling evidence for a lawsuit against Weber County and Madfly, the subcontractor based at Ogden-Hinckley Airport that did the spraying.
Fowers said he was working in a field that Saturday in July when he saw the mosquito-abatement spraying another of his fields. He drove his tractor there as quickly as he could and ran to stand next to his bee houses.
"Weber County mosquito abatement killed them while I was standing there trying to wave the plane off," Fowers said. "They sprayed right over the top of me and my bee houses."
Fowers said he watched as the bees and "everything else" in his field began to die.
But Bruce Bennett, director of Weber County's Mosquito Abatement District, said Fowers' and others' claims are false.
He said his department heard from one farmer who thought Weber County mosquito abatement had killed his bees.
"We tested the alfalfa and any bees to see if there was any residue on them. Dave Daniels, our pesticide complaint specialist, did all the tests on them, and he didn't find anything."
Furthermore, Bennett said, "we've never had a problem" with the spraying at any other time in his 47 years of employment with the mosquito abatement district.
Bennett said the employees and subcontractors go by the rules for their operations.
"We always spray when the bees should be back in their supers (hives)," he said.
Fowers said the spraying took place about 8:50 p.m.
Another beekeeper, Michael Venable, who lives about a mile southeast of Fowers, said he has lost bees as the result of mosquito control.
"The mosquito abatement people keep spraying them," he said. "They
say it doesn't affect them, but you can go out after they have sprayed and the bees are dying all over the place."
Venable, who raises honeybees, said he had 200 hives eight years ago and now has 15.
He attributes some of those losses to mites, but believes the majority of his losses have been from the mosquito spraying.
Ten years ago, Venable said, most of his hives needed to be split each year because of growth in bee populations. Now he's replacing hives each year at a cost of $300 to $600.
Fowers said Weber County Mosquito Abatement authorities admitted they hired Madfly and that the bees were sprayed, but officials with the state asked him at the time for an overwhelming amount of evidence to study his case. He said he didn't have time to gather evidence last summer because he needed to farm.
"The state told me that I would have to have over a quart of dead bees," he said. "That would take over a week to gather up the bees off my 40 acres."
Fowers said he believes he has enough evidence from other sources to prove he was dealt a wrongful blow.
He has documentation from Daniels stating that the chemical sprayed on his field was malathion, he said. Fowers said he has documentation from three colleges stating that malathion is deadly to bees.
He also has documentation that his field was marked as a no-fly area for field dusters. In addition, he has photos of dead bees throughout the field.
He has a copy of a report by Daniels to the Utah Pesticide Review Committee. In it, Daniels says the pilot of the plane said he saw Fowers standing in his field the day of the application and he sprayed directly over the leafcutter beehives "because he was told to do so by the Weber County Mosquito Abatement manager, Bruce Bennett."
Utah Rep. Ben Ferry, R-Corinne, said there is a need for beekeepers to organize themselves to protect their interests.
Also a leafcutter beekeeper and an alfalfa seed farmer, Ferry said he and others are trying to organize beekeepers and farmers to educate them about the risks to their crops and to educate others.
"The rules and regulations are already there," he said. "We are trying to make sure there are proper communications. ... It is important that we communicate with the county mosquito abatement people so they know where they are."
The county should have known that the chemical they sprayed would have killed Fowers' bees, and it should have known the bees were there, Ferry said.
He said his bees may or may not have been affected by spraying in the past, but he can't document any problems.
"I'm just going to make sure the county knows where my alfalfa seeds are.
"From my perspective, once the county has been informed where they are, they need to stay away."
Add Your Comment
