[Prospero]

Man, they've been treating corn seed with organo-phosphates (definite WMD) for a generation. I've seen whole flocks, communities of water fowl, wiped out in a day after planting. Bees? They're way back in line. And you should hear the experts explain away the residue in the food chain, how the metabolites of this deadly nerve toxin become essentially spread through the plant and are no longer present in enough quantity to be a problem at harvest time.

Never do they disappear or become less deadly.

Nicotine, in tomatoes and their sibling tobacco plants are alkaloid metabolic waste that builds up inside the plant cells over time. They double as natural nerve toxins because of their formidable ability to transverse the blood-brain barrier in mammals. There is a proportional relationship between the fat-solubility of a compound and its addictive qualities, and Nicotine is up there with heroin and Valium.

The use of nicotine directly as a "natural" insecticide is almost certainly a reaction to the previous bird-killing qualities of organo-phosphate.

I would not be surprised to discover genetic-engineered corn and other crops (since almost no natural seed is in the food chain these days) spliced to produce nicotine, which would seem easy since they are naturally a part of the tobacco / tomato plant.

Now, if they would use hemp, that one also produces a less blood-brain transversant fat soluble alkaloid compound that has a different effect on insects. The bees would live but no work would get done, I suppose.

[Carriage Hill]

Does this mean I have to give my 2-pack-a-day Marlboro habit of 55 years? </s>

[zeugma]

Now, if they would use hemp, that one also produces a less blood-brain transversant fat soluble alkaloid compound that has a different effect on insects. The bees would live but no work would get done, I suppose.

Funny.

[GladesGuru]

“Now, if they would use hemp, that one also produces a less blood-brain transversant fat soluble alkaloid compound that has a different effect on insects. The bees would live but no work would get done, I suppose.”

Buzz’ed bees” - what an idea!

;-)