MOSCOW : For Ivan Gusak, bees are his retirement plan. For years he has been keeping them in Rostov, about a 15 hour drive south from Moscow, and had planned to live off the money he makes from selling the honey they produce.But last month, his apiary was wiped out.
He found out through the grapevine that a nearby farm had been applying pyrethroids to crops overnight. The chemical is legal for use in Russia, but can have devastating consequences if it’s misapplied.Had the farmers given Gusak a warning, he could have taken action to shield his hives from the pesticide.
But this didn’t happen.“They told me they published a notice in the local newspaper, but it has a narrow circulation and I don’t receive it," he said in an interview. “I am.