Understanding Systemic Insecticides and Their Potential Impacts in Urban Ecosystems

Systemic insecticides, such as neonicotinoids, are commonly used to protect nursery stock and sometimes used to protect urban landscapes from pest damage. How do these materials move around in the environment, and what effect might they have on pollinators, beneficial insects, and other nontarget organisms? Let's review the known and unknown aspects of this increasingly scrutinized issue.

The speaker: Dr. Andrew Sutherland is the Urban Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Advisor for the University of California's Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR), directly serving the San Francisco Bay Area and, through the UC IPM program, indirectly serving the entire state of CA as a conduit for IPM-related information and resources.