eBay: killing our bees

eBay sell shoes, blenders, headphones, handbags, t-shirts – and right now, they also sell illegal pesticides which kill bees.

Last year, hundreds of thousands of 38 Degrees members worked with a coalition of other organisations to get these pesticides banned in Europe. But eBay UK haven’t caught up. Any unwitting gardener in the UK can buy them easily from sellers in America – all it takes is a few clicks. And there’s no mention of the fact that they’re illegal to use in Europe.

The staff team ordered a pesticide containing the banned chemicals from an American seller on eBay.co.uk just to see how easy it was (we’ll return it!). Turns out it’s easy.

Vanessa Amaral-Rogers, pesticides officer at the charity Buglife, says:

“The banned pesticides, neonicotinoids, are related to nicotine and work by destroying the nervous system of insects. Last year Europe banned these chemicals after finding they were deadly to bees in even small doses but the traders selling these products are from America where they haven’t been banned. Some of the pesticides have never been allowed to be used in the UK!”

eBay might be international – but they should respect European laws. Together, we can protect our bees – and make sure that UK gardeners don’t accidentally break the law!

Click here to join thousands of other 38 Degrees members in writing to eBay to tell them to stop selling the illegal pesticide.