Lowe's and Home Depot Eliminate Bee-Killing Pesticides

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Both Home Depot and Lowe's have announced that they are phasing out the pesticides that kill bees.

 Friends of the Earth and other groups have campaingned endlessly to get movement on the issue and finally the federal government added its push.

 From Garden Design Online, "The announcement followed a long campaign by Friends of the Earth and others to remove plants treated with neonicotonoids, which kill bees.  Lisa Archer, Food and Technology program director at Friends of the Earth US, said Home Depot's action shows that it is listening to consumer concerns.  A study released by the group and others in 2014 showed that 51 percent of garden plants purchased at Lowe's, Home Depot, and Walmart contained the harmful pesticides at levels that could damage or kill bees."

 Reuters reports that Lowe's will take until 2019 to accomplish this simple goal. "Last year, BJ's Wholesale Club, a warehouse retailer said it was asking all of its vendors to provide plants free of neonics by the end of 2014 or to label such products.
Home Depot, the largest U.S. home improvement chain, also asked its suppliers to start labeling any plants treated with neonics and that it was running tests in several states to see if suppliers can eliminate neonics in their plant production without hurting plant health."

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