Vermont beekeeper tells committee draft neonic rules lack IPM thresholds, urges stronger disposal, notification and aerial‑spray limits

Andrew Munkress, a commercial beekeeper from Cornwall and the immediate past president of the Vermont Beekeepers Association, told the Agriculture, Food Resiliency & Forestry committee that draft agency rules implementing H.706 do not reflect how integrated pest management operates in the field and omit clear action thresholds that would justify insecticide use.

Why it matters: Munkress said the missing thresholds undermine the point of IPM and leave beekeepers exposed to systemic seed treatments that persist in soil and water and can poison pollinators across the season.

Munkress said the draft definition of integrated pest management in the rules is “boilerplate” and “doesn’t include the 4 basic steps,” starting with a clear action threshold. He told lawmakers that, in practice, beekeepers accept annual colony losses and that “the general agreed upon threshold is somewhere between 15–25% loss of colonies,” a level he said would normally justify stronger control measures in crop IPM frameworks.

He criticized language in the draft that describes best management practices as…