Blackberry bloom is on: please don’t spray now
June 1, 2013
As Oregon beekeepers know, blackberry blossoms are a major crop worked by bees. I (Madronna) was therefore distressed to find that someone saturated a blackberry-covered hillside in my neighborhood with herbicide yesterday (May 31).
Spraying any pesticide on this plant at this time will poison honeybees and native pollinators both.
This is a plea to all h0meowners to honor the Oregon Department of Agriculture guidelines NOT to spray crops worked by bees while the bloom is on them.
Thanks for helping to keep our honeybees vibrant.
2 Comments
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Gary Rondeau
Madronna Holden
ibeephilip
kenabis419
Oregon Sustainable Beekeepers 
Spraying pesticides during bloom is a violation of the law.
Charges may be appropriate.
If we never choose to inforce the law, the law has neither meaning nor motivation.
Thanks, Don. This is very important. I can’t tell who did this, but I have placed a notice on the site that this is a violation of the law.
Your comment also motivated me to check who the property owners are and perhaps trace the spraying that way.