These pesticides poison bees, and they’re for sale on Amazon

If you love bees, Amazon can sell you any number of things to show it: bee-themed socks, dish towels, ornaments and more.

But one other thing Amazon sells? Jug after jug of neonicotinoid pesticides — the pesticides that poison bees and are killing them by the millions.

We’re calling on Amazon and other major corporations to take bee-killing pesticides off their shelves, and we couldn’t do it without the support of people like you.

The problem with neonic pesticides

Bees are in big trouble. Our farmland is 48 times more toxic to bees today than it was just 25 years ago, thanks to the widespread use of bee-killing neonic pesticides.

These pesticides are neurotoxins — they attack bees’ brains and can cause paralysis and death. For the bees that don’t die outright, exposure to neonics makes it harder for them to forage and find their way home.

But with a click of a mouse, Amazon will still ship neonics directly to your door in most states.

The facts are these: We need bees. We rely on them to pollinate 80% of all flowering plants, including many of our favorite foods.

What we don’t need? Bee-killing pesticides that have only been around since the 1990s — and have still managed to do an astounding amount of damage during their relatively short time on Earth.

Here’s what we can do to help save the bees

Environment Massachusetts Research & Policy Center and our national network have already led successful campaigns to convince corporations to do what’s right for our environment. Your support, combined with our research, public education and organizing, helped win commitments from Home Depot and Lowe’s to phase out some bee-killing pesticides. Though Home Depot has only committed to stop selling plants with neonics, it can and should still do more.

Now it’s Amazon’s turn to give bees a chance. As the largest online retailer in the world, it can make a big difference — and it has a big responsibility to do its part to help save the bees.

As a new year approaches, we’re setting big goals for our Save the Bees campaign in the months ahead — but what we’re able to accomplish is in part up to the generosity of supporters like you. 

We need to raise $200,000 by the end of the year to help make all of this work possible in 2024. Will you make a tax-deductible donation to our Year-End Drive to power our work in the year ahead?