The collateral damage of spraying to kill mosquitoes that could carry the Zika virus in South Carolina came as a shock this week as honey bees died instantly by the millions.
The proof positive was Flowertown Bee Farm and Supply in Summerville, S.C., where owner and beekeeper Juanita Stanley told The Associated Press that her farm “looks like it’s been nuked.”
Officials of Dorchester County decided that rather than spray for mosquitoes from trucks at night, they would drop fine mists of an insecticide called Naled from airplanes. Night was better – honey bees do not forage for pollen at night. Plus, given sufficient warning, beekeepers can shield their hives and protect the bees’ food and water from contamination.
But Sunday was different.
“They passed right over the trees three times,” Stanley told ABC 4 News. After the plane left, the familiar buzzing stopped. The silence in its wake was like being in a morgue, she said.