Retailers Aim to Limit Pesticides to Help Honeybees

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Home Depot and others are working to eliminate or limit use of a type of pesticide suspected of helping cause dramatic declines in honeybees.

June 25, 2014, 4:58 PM EDT / Updated June 25, 2014, 8:33 PM EDT / Source: Reuters

Home Depot and other companies are working to eliminate or limit use of a type of pesticide suspected of helping cause dramatic declines in honeybee populations needed to pollinate key American crops, officials said Wednesday. The moves include requiring suppliers to label any plants treated with neonicotinoid, or neonic, pesticides sold through home and garden stores. Atlanta-based Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer, is requiring its suppliers to start such labeling by the fourth quarter of this year, said Ron Jarvis, the company's vice president of merchandising/sustainability. Home Depot is also running tests in several states to see if suppliers can eliminate neonics in their plant production without hurting plant health, he said. Warehouse retailer BJ's Wholesale Club said Wednesday it was asking all of its vendors to provide plants free of neonics by the end of 2014 or to label such products as requiring "caution around pollinators" like bees.