After the EU restricted the use of three NNi insecticides in December 2013, farmers in the UK reported losses of 20–50 % in their next-season oilseed rape crops caused by cabbage stem flea beetles. As a result, the relevant UK department (DEFRA) gave farmers temporary permission to spray a different neonicotinoid on oilseed rape crops. On March 19, 2015, John Haynes, an arable farm manager in eastern England, was quoted in The Guardian on the impact of the NNi ban: “This is the first season we didn’t use the pesticide and the flea beetle larvae are all over the oilseed rape. It costs me an additional L 25,000 to apply six different insecticides … (and) the beetle and aphids are already resistant to these pyrethroids. It’s old chemistry that kills all other beneficiaries in the soil, rather than the systemic neonics that target just the beetles.”
The situation in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Germany’s oilseed rape stronghold is no better. Here, farmer Hans Behn (quoted on
www.agrarheute.com on January 19, 2015) spoke of huge losses due to cabbage stem flea beetles, crops written off, and additional costs of 400 €/ha.
In Germany as a whole, oilseed rape acreage is expected to decline by 10 % in 2015. As much less pollen-rich oilseed rape has been planted across northern Europe, bees have lost one of their most important sources of early-season forage.