Beekeepers and conservationists in Bavaria are sounding the alarm.
After Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner (CDU) granted emergency approval for a pesticide that is highly toxic to bees, it is spreading uncontrollably in the environment.
In the district of Neustadt an der Aisch-Bad Windsheim, for example, large quantities of the active ingredient thiamethoxam and its degradation product, clothianidin, which is also used as a pesticide, were found in water and sludge samples. Sugar beet seeds coated with thiamethoxam had been sown here. The active ingredient and its degradation product from the neonicotinoid pesticide group were also detected in samples of plants from the Franconian district and the neighboring district of Fürth.