Legislation to protect native bees as well as honeybees from pesticide exposure was passed by the New Jersey Assembly’s Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.
Native bees include bumblebees, carpenter bees, sweat bees and more. They pollinate crops and flowers in New Jersey, according to a fact sheet for New Jersey and Pennsylvania farmers from Rutgers University and Bryn Mawr College.
New Jersey’s honeybees are not a native species, but were imported by early colonists to help with pollination and for honey production.
They are declining even more than the national average, Assembly Democrats said in a press statement. Nationwide, honeybee deaths average 33 percent per year, but in New Jersey in 2017, 41 percent of bees were lost, the Democrats said.
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