Saying No to Neonicotinoids

SOUTHEASTERN MINNESOTA – Until a year ago, neonicotinoids, the most commonly used insecticide in the world, was something I heard, read and wrote about because of its dangers to other insects and people, but it wasn’t really personal.

Then, while turkey hunting along the North Branch Root River last spring, Joe Deden sent me a short video of fruit blossoms without any pollinating bees. Deden is the founder and first director of Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center near Lanesboro so his video got me wondering more about how neonics affect me directly. I looked at the blossoms next to me and also noticed no bees, no buzzing.

Could it be neonics?

Certainly, such a tiny thing was no proof of huge problem, there could be so many other reasons. But I wondered.

And thus, began me looking deeper, watching a fascinating 2026 Neonic Forum and finally, attending a small rally in St. Paul to call on Minnesota legislators to pass a bill that would severely restrict neonics for farming and around our towns.

The five main neonics have tongue-twisting names of imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, clothianidin, acetamiprid and dinotefuran, but from what I learned, they add up to a lot of trouble.

I began looking more under rocks of my favorite trout streams and, if they didn’t have a lot of mayflies or caddis, wondered if neonics were partly to blame? Certainly, there are many other reasons why numbers could be down but from what I’ve heard and read, neonics could be a major cause.

Some trout anglers worry that neonics are cutting down the number of caddis and other bugs that trout eat. (Photo by John Weiss)

When I didn’t count many butterflies in the midsummer count around a Rochester flood-control reservoir, was I seeing more evidence of at least neonics being part of the problem?

Widespread use, limited benefits

Neonics were developed about 35 years ago because they were seen as a much safer alternative to insecticides being also less harmful to mammals.

Bayer, a maker of several of them, says: “To this end, comprehensive studies conducted under realistic field conditions have shown that residues of neonicotinoids in the flowers of seed-treated crops are clearly below the levels that could cause adverse effects on honeybee colonies. Neonicotinoids, like all pesticides, are highly regulated, and all Bayer products undergo extensive testing to ensure they don’t have unacceptable adverse effects on non-target insects and the environment.”

The surprising part of them, to me, is that they don’t do much good for farmers. The federal National Library of Medicine’s National Center for Biotechnology Information states: “Only approximately 5% of the neonicotinoid active ingredient is taken up by crop plants and most instead disperses into the wider environment. Since the mid-2000s, several studies raised concerns that neonicotinoids may be having a negative effect on non-target organisms, in particular on honeybees and bumblebees.”

Rarely do they pay for themselves with better crops; in fact, farmers might even lose money. But they are applied to nearly every kernel of seed corn and most soybean seeds in Minnesota because it seems farmers look at neonics as a form of insurance, a prophylactic, in case they have problems with insects.

A growing number of people, and groups, however, are saying no to neonics.

The Xerces Society, which advocates for invertebrate conservation, reports: “Although introduced with the premise of being less harmful to humans and wildlife than older insecticides, neonicotinoids, which are readily transported to surface water, are putting aquatic invertebrates, that form the foundation of thriving rivers and streams, at risk.”

It adds: “Home garden products containing neonicotinoids can legally be applied in far greater concentrations in gardens than they can be on farms – sometimes at concentrations as much as 120 times as great which increases the risk to pollinators.”

Experts worry that butterflies are being harmed when they feed off plants with neonics on them. (Photo by John Weiss)

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) also sees potential problems with them. Two of the five kinds of neonics — clothianidin and imidacloprid — are now on the state’s list of five surface water pesticides of concern. The five made up 95 to 97 percent of pesticides detected over reference values, according to the MDA’s 2022 Water Quality Monitoring Report.

One of them, clothianidin, shows up most in southeast Minnesota — 49 percent in one test, 61 percent in another; imidacloprid shows up most in urban areas because it’s used in so many household pest killers. A 2022 study in the Root River watershed found clothianidin in all 19 samples; 18 were above the federal chronic benchmark.

Joe Deden, Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center founder and former director, talks about problems with neonics. (Photo by John Weiss)

That is what worries Deden. He said he once had a flowering tree when he lived at Eagle Bluff. “You could be sitting in this house and the tree was out there and you could hear pollinators, it was like almost a chainsaw running, there were so many bees up in those trees, pollinating.”

But last spring, he was walking in Lanesboro and there were a few apple and horse chestnut trees. “Normally, you would hear bees everywhere, and there were maybe 10 where there would be thousands in the past. Where were the pollinators?”

After all, pollinators help produce about a third of all the food humans eat, he said.

He said it’s up to the younger generation to take up this fight. He’s concentrating on getting a better pollinator prairie around his home. “I’m tired of fighting those battles, I don’t think anyone is going to win against the agriculture lobby,” he said.

Deden concluded: “I feel so sorry for our children and grandchildren.”

The January 15, 2026 Neonic Forum was presented by the University of Minnesota Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships. One takeaway was “(Treated seeds) have limited effectivity against major corn and soybean pests, provide limited yield benefits.”

Watch the full forum here:

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture, instead, recommends using integrated pest management, planting treated seeds only for “high-risk scenarios,” rotating insecticide classes, limiting spills and disposing of excess correctly.

While many seeds are already treated, it’s possible to find seeds without treatments, especially if ordering early, one Forum speaker said.

Human health concerns grow

It was problems with human health that were particularly troublesome. Dr. Vicki Mourikes, a veterinarian with a doctorate in reproductive toxicology, said we get neonics from contaminated food and water, and contact with pets.

Neonics were promoted as being safe for humans because they only affect insects but metabolites produced from neonics can pass to humans, especially pregnant women and young children, she said. More than 95 percent of women have them, especially Hispanic women, she said. They harm us by disrupting cell-to-cell communications, she said.

Neonics have been associated with problems of the nervous, metabolic and reproductive systems, she said.

Community organizes to push legislation

On March 9, about three dozen members of several outdoors and environmental groups along with maybe 10 high school students and teachers marched to the State Capitol so we could push legislation that would severely restrict the use of neonics.

We, however, had to deal with a dose of reality: it often takes years to get such bills into law. And in this year’s session, state leaders are dealing with mega-issues such as the fraud being found in some programs while working in a nearly tied Legislature. Controversial bills such as ours face a nearly impossible hurdle. But similar bills did get a hearing in the Senate in 2025 and ours got a hearing on March 11, 2026 in the House. So, there was at least a bit of hope.

Those wanting to greatly reduce use of neonics march to the State Capitol March 9, 2026. (Photo by John Weiss)

Willa Childress of the Pesticide Action & Agroecology Network said she grew up on farms and farmers need advocates to speak out against neonics because producers are stuck on the treadmill of neonic dependence.

“They aren’t actually helping farmers,” she said. “They are overpaying for something that isn’t helping them.”

From the standpoint of trout and trout streams, Monta Hayner, who guides out of the Driftless Fly Fishing Company in Preston, said “we (have been) seeing a decrease in insects hatching for a number of years now. It has been reported by other anglers and myself.” Both mayflies and caddis are decreasing, “they are more sporadic,” she said. “When there is a hatch it’s like here and here and here instead of a bunch.”

Erin Rutt with Pollinate Minnesota said honey bee losses were once around 11 percent but are now around 65 percent. “To be an insect these days is pretty hard,” he said. Neonics get away from the corn or soybean plants and get into the ones that bees and other insects eat, he said.

At a rally in the Capitol, Dr. Dawn Wheeler, a retired University of Minnesota professor in nephrology and internal medicine, said neonics can cross over into humans. “There is a lot of concern about development of the human brain,” she said. Pregnant women who are exposed to neonics had babies with lower birth weights and smaller brains.

“The experiment is on, we are part of it, it’s terrifying,” she said. If you’re pregnant, don’t go near neonics, she said.