Oh, honey…
On Tuesday, a Polish court found a woman who was in charge of a municipal anti-mosquito spraying operation guilty in the killing of two million bees, after she gratuitously used the pesticide without proper authorization.
According to the news website of Polskie Radio, the woman, who has been identified only as Joanna S. due to privacy laws, had been tasked with culling the mosquito population in Biecz, southern Poland. Mosquitos were rampant in the region following floods in 2010, the station reports.
However, the pesticide she used hadn’t been approved by the Ministry of Health. The poison wiped out 358 bee colonies.
Lucjan Furmanek, head of a beekeepers association in Gorlice, a city in south-eastern Poland, told Poland’s PAP news agency that the careless spraying could have put human lives at risk.
“I hope the court decision will prevent other thoughtless environmental disasters,” Furmanek said, according to PAP news.
The court handed down a four-month suspended jail sentence. According to the Australian, the conviction could open the door to civil suits brought by area beekeepers. Talk about kicking the hornets’ nest.
