Neem is such an effective bee killer that there are at least three states that list neem as an apicide, in their lists of legal pesticides.

The Latin word for bee is apsis, and the word apicide refers to the killing of bees.

The states are; New York, Maryland, and South Carolina.

Because over the last 5 years there has been an alarming decline in North American bee populations (a pathogen is suspected)I would suggest that every bottle of neem sold in North America to have, in letters large enough to read at first glance; Bee killer. I wonder what percentage of North Americans, who spray their gardens and lawns, know what the word apicide means?

The day I sprayed with neem, I saw a couple dead bees on the ground beside the rosebushes I had sprayed, and the next day all the bees in my garden were dead, or dying. There could have been many dead bees I didn't see as their bodies would have fallen into undergrowth. I was dead-heading my roses,the day after I sprayed with neem, and it was easy to get close up to the sick bees, because they were too sick to fly, and stuck within the centers of large rose blossoms. I could put my face right up to each of them and saw them staggering and stumbling as they lost coordination. A few hours bees were tumbling dead out of Tea roses and the ground was littered with the bodies of dead bees. I asked my neighbors if they had sprayed anything that week and they replied, that they had not.

I had sprayed neem after 4 p.m. after I had walked through the garden and not seen a single bee.

Luxrosa