12/27/2025
Neonics are considered “systemic” pesticides. This means they can be applied directly to the soil (as a “drench”) around a plant’s roots, or as a coating on a plant seed, which the plant then literally soaks up as it grows. That makes the plant itself—including its nectar, pollen, leaves, stems, and fruit—toxic. What’s worse is that only a small portion of the neonics make it into the target plant, about 2 to 5 percent for most seed coatings, leaving about 95 percent in the soil.
Once in the soil, neonics remain active for years, and rain or irrigation water can easily carry them long distances to contaminate new soil, plant life, and water supplies. Given neonics’ widespread use, the result has been vast ecosystem contamination, which we notice most often in water. A 2015 study by the U.S. Geological Survey found neonic pollution in more than half of the streams it sampled nationwide.
Neonics also harm much of the wildlife they touch and MOSTLY HONEYBEES. Studies in just the last few years have linked neonics to losses of birds, the collapse of fisheries, and birth defects in white-tailed deer, to name a few.
