Unexpected Casualties: Millions of honeybees die after county sprays for mosquitoes

Recently, a county in South Carolina took action against the threat of the Zika virus by spraying insecticide to decimate the local mosquito population. Casualties of this decision: 2.5 million honeybees. Although not harmful to humans, insecticide Naled is toxic to bees, and local keepers say they were not properly warned about the decision to aerial mist the county. Given no Zika cases have been traced to local mosquitoes, Active Junky is glad to hear other counties are delaying planned sprays, but significant damage has been done to a beneficial species already experiencing unusually high death rates in recent years. Learn more about the incident here.