DENVER (AP) – Garden-care giant Ortho said Tuesday it will stop using a class of chemicals widely believed to harm bees.
The company plans to phase out neonicotinoids by 2021 in eight products used to control garden pests and diseases.
Ortho will change three products for roses, flowers, trees and shrubs by 2017 and other products later, said Tim Martin, vice president and general manager of Ortho, a division of Marysville, Ohio-based Scotts Miracle-Gro Co.
The chemicals, called neonics for short, attack the central nervous systems of insects. Some advocates say neonics are one of several reasons behind declining populations of bees, which are major pollinators of food crops.
About one-third of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and honeybees are responsible for 80 percent of that pollination.