Spinosad spraying in Westchester 90045

I am concerned also, as I have a client hive on El Manor in Westchester and have only now read this information you send—12/23. I found this below information on the web at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15366583
What kind of information does the agency doing the spraying offer??
How did they notify you? I do not expect my clients know, or they would have told me. My hive with them is 2 deeps and 3 mediums, so not easily moved!

“This research has clearly demonstrated that spinosad residues that have been allowed to dry for 3 hr are not acutely harmful to honeybees when low-volume and ultralow-volume sprays are used. Further, glasshouse and semifield studies have demonstrated that dried residues are not acutely toxic, and although pollen and nectar from sprayed plants may have transient effects on brood development, the residues do not overtly affect hive viability of either the honeybee or the bumblebee. Field studies in which typical application methods of spinosad were used on a variety of crops have demonstrated that spinosad has low risk to adult honeybees and has little or no effect on hive activity and brood development. The collective evidence from these studies indicates that once spinosad residues have dried on plant foliage, generally 3 hr or less, the risk of spinosad to honeybees is negligible.”

Please reply Susan Rudnicki

Dana has relayed the document she received from the Dept of Ag regarding this Spinosad application. It is deficient in recognizing the potential effects on pollinators or managed honey bee colonies. I called the Dept 800 number and here is the upshot—to all of you, please do not think that this will not affect you if it is not in your district. Bees DO NOT recognize human boundaries or city limits.

HI, Dana—just called the 800 number and spoke to a operator regarding the lack of recognition to poisoning of pollinators with Spinosad while wet. I had to get a bit stern, as she wanted to narrow the focus to issues they already address (laundry, dogs, etc) and not understand the foraging behavior of bees miles from their home hives. Bees can be poisoned whether the spraying occurs right by their site or not. Many more hives are potentially going to be part of the background population, now that the new ordinance has passed, but the agency does not recognize this. She wanted to know if my hives are registered—they are—and she said they work with the county apiary inspector to notify beekeepers in those areas. It would appear to me there is not a full accounting for the oversight in this case. By the way, do you have your hive registered?? I highly recommend you do so—it is only $10 a year, regardless of the number of colonies, and gives you a air of legitimacy with authorities.
The secretary told me she will have someone from their main office, a technical adviser, call me, though it may be a couple days, due to the holiday. She was clearly not prepared to deal with this subject at all, and got a bit huffy. I tried to emphasize the need for the agency to recognize and properly deal with the impacts to managed honey bee colonies, which this notice does not at all.
I have recently had a bee kill on 2 colonies at my home, probably from pesticide poisoning (the whole story has been running on the Forum, which I do not know if you follow….) so I am particularly sensitive to this poisoning problem right now. I have submitted pollen samples to a lab ($576) for testing for 177 chemicals. Susan