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Emily May

@emtomology

Agricultural conservation scientist @xercessociety. Pollinators, pesticide toxicology, IPM, habitat restoration, resilient food systems. Views are my own.πŸ“Vermont | she/her

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16.10.2023
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Latest posts by Emily May @emtomology

This is why Minnesotans are begging folks outside the state to keep talking about us.

Please don’t let the world forget we are still in danger.

11.02.2026 17:04 πŸ‘ 1919 πŸ” 1348 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 8
Winter Webinar - Pesticide-Free Landscapes for Pollinators and People: How We Can Help
Winter Webinar - Pesticide-Free Landscapes for Pollinators and People: How We Can Help YouTube video by Pollinator Pathway

Did you miss Pollinator Pathway's winter webinar on pollinators, pesticides, and what you can do to help? Catch up here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkI6...

11.02.2026 17:09 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Bad Bunny's Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show
Bad Bunny's Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show Watch the world's biggest artist on the world's biggest stage at the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show. Get 3 free months of Apple Music and listen to Bad Bunny in Spatial Audio, access…

Take a break today to revel in the joy of a man unapologetically celebrating his Boricua culture. youtu.be/G6FuWd4wNd8 πŸ‘πŸ½πŸ‘πŸ½πŸ‘πŸ½ Then learn more from @beckyhammer.bsky.social bsky.app/profile/beck...

09.02.2026 15:00 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 2
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Controversial Dicamba Herbicides Receive 2-Year Registration After doing without in 2025, farmers will have access to

Over-the-top dicamba: still a bad idea for non-target crops, plants, and wildlife. Yet here we are again. www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/...

09.02.2026 14:25 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Mid-Atlantic Monarch and Pollinator Habitat Kit Program The eastern monarch butterfly population has declined more than 80% since the 1990s. One of the most significant actions we can take to protect this iconic butterfly and other pollinators is to increa...

Are you in NYC, Philly, or elsewhere in NJ/PA? Does your community garden, library, school, urban farm, etc. want a pollinator garden? Applications for Xerces habitat kits for this region are open through Feb 17th! Pick up and plant in May/June πŸπŸ¦‹πŸŒ» xerces.org/pollinator-c...

28.01.2026 19:54 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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The Trump administration has secretly rewritten nuclear safety rules The rewrite was done to speed up the construction of a new generation of nuclear reactors. Critics warn it could compromise safety and public trust.

EXCLSUVIE: The Trump administration has secretly rewritten nuclear safety rules and shared them with the companies they're meant to regulate, without making the new rules publicly available.

We've obtained a copy of the new rules and here's what we found.

www.npr.org/2026/01/28/n...

28.01.2026 10:23 πŸ‘ 597 πŸ” 427 πŸ’¬ 23 πŸ“Œ 110
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Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan…

* Vehicle traffic: -11%
* Foot traffic: +3.4%
* Storefront vacancy: -0.9%
* Pollution: -22%
* Revenue for mass transit: $548M

So YES this has been a huge success.οΏΌ

23.12.2025 14:00 πŸ‘ 8841 πŸ” 2367 πŸ’¬ 92 πŸ“Œ 281

Tl;dr: sprays intended to kill insects end up in the environment at levels likely to kill insects, and pesticides don’t stay where they are applied. Pretty straightforward. I hope this study raises concern about the widespread, mostly untracked use of pyrethroids for 🦟 on million of acres.

18.12.2025 22:28 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Mosquito Management at Home Spring is quickly turning into summer, and with the warming temperatures comes the drone of mosquitoes in our parks and yards. Unfortunately, the insecticide sprays used by pest control companies can ...

For more on mosquito management, and more ecologically sound options: xerces.org/blog/mosquit...

18.12.2025 22:21 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Contamination levels were higher in yards sprayed by private companies than in yards sprayed by local mosquito control districts.

18.12.2025 22:21 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

75% of neighboring yards were contaminated with pyrethroid insecticides, with levels up to twice the lethal dose.

18.12.2025 22:21 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

On average, yards sprayed by private companies had over six times the amount of insecticides lethal to honey bees, with a maximum of over 34 times the lethal dose.

18.12.2025 22:21 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
An initial assessment of risk to pollinators from mosquito control in residential settings - Stacks Journal Peer-reviewed research - An initial assessment of risk to pollinators from mosquito control in residential settings

New study: backyard mosquito sprays lead to insecticide levels high enough to kill pollinators, and sprays travel easily into neighboring yards. stacksjournal.org/article/ande...

18.12.2025 22:21 πŸ‘ 25 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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See the influential paper and @undark.org commentary on Monsanto's ghostwriting by Alexander Kaurov & @naomioreskes.bsky.social: undark.org/2025/08/15/o... #pesticides #agtwitter

03.12.2025 15:58 πŸ‘ 30 πŸ” 8 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Boy, retraction is the thing these days. After years of critique, a foundational 25-year old paper on the safety of glyphosate herbicide has been pulled. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 1/2

03.12.2025 15:58 πŸ‘ 93 πŸ” 35 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 8

Great listen! Wondering how to improve kids’ health and educational experience? Cleaner indoor air might be part of the solution.

28.11.2025 01:19 πŸ‘ 64 πŸ” 10 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Made this switch and don’t regret it! Great coffee, without the plastic..

28.11.2025 01:06 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

6/ EPA says it's committed to reducing PFAS pollution.
So why does it keep advancing new PFAS pesticides? Especially ones like isocycloseram, a chemical that exceeded levels of concern for bees and aquatic life for most proposed uses?
#PFAS #Pesticides #ForeverChemicals #PublicHealth #EPA

06.06.2025 14:25 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Regulations.gov

4/ 🐝 Isocycloseram: Proposed broad spectrum insecticide with very high toxicity to aquatic invertebrates and honey bees. Risk quotients exceeded levels of concern for both, in some cases by orders of magnitude. Yet no full field studies for bees were required.
πŸ“„ www.regulations.gov/docket/EPA-H...

06.06.2025 14:25 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Now that EPA has approved several of these, it’s time to bump this thread on PFAS pesticides:

26.11.2025 15:46 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Bee Safe, Grow Well: Pollinator-Safe Nursery Practices with Full Circle Gardens | Xerces Society Across the country, innovative nursery growers are implementing practices that protect pollinators while still keeping pests at manageable levels. In this webinar, Xerces is proud to feature Sarah Sal...

Want to dig deeper? Join us Oct 7 for a Bee Safe, Grow Well webinar with Sarah Salatino of Full Circle Gardens and Xerces staff. Learn how nurseries can grow plants that are safer for pollinators - and bring your questions, there will be lots of time for Q&A! 🌸🐝 xerces.org/events/bee-s...

26.09.2025 19:38 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Growing Pollinator-Safe Plants: What Nurseries Can Do (and How You Can Help)
Growing Pollinator-Safe Plants: What Nurseries Can Do (and How You Can Help) YouTube video by The Xerces Society

Excited to share our new video, Growing Pollinator-Safe Plants: What Nurseries Can Do (and How You Can Help)! 🐝🌸🌎 This project has been 3 years in the making, featuring interviews with nursery managers on steps they take to reduce pesticide risks.

Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcdv...

26.09.2025 19:33 πŸ‘ 15 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Line chart showing that there's been a rapid escalation in how quickly the world installs a gigawatt of solar power capacity.

Line chart showing that there's been a rapid escalation in how quickly the world installs a gigawatt of solar power capacity.

Time for the world to install a gigawatt of solar power capacity
2004: A year
2010: ~ a month
2015: ~ a week
Now: < A day
ourworldindata.org/data-insight... πŸ§ͺ

21.09.2025 21:44 πŸ‘ 487 πŸ” 181 πŸ’¬ 18 πŸ“Œ 25

Prophylactic seed treatments make up an increasingly large share of ag pesticide load, but have no basis in scouting/thresholds - and in millions of acres of corn/soy, limited to no benefit for crop yields. We need both policy and incentives to shift towards more sustainable approaches.

12.09.2025 14:25 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

The question is: how do we shift practice at scale? What training, tools, policy, or financial incentives could help make threshold-based pest management the norm?

12.09.2025 14:25 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

This is why we emphasize scouting/monitoring and use of thresholds as core components of IPM. Nice to see the evidence for how scouting/thresholds can reduce inputs and improve outcomes!

12.09.2025 14:25 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Threshold-based management reduces insecticide use by 44% without compromising pest control or crop yield - Communications Earth & Environment Pest control programs using pest density thresholds cut insecticide uses by 44% and costs by 40%, while maintaining yield and pest suppression, and enhancing beneficial insect populations, as revealed...

Exciting new meta-analysis: compared to calendar spraying, threshold-based management cuts insecticide use by 44% and costs by 40% without reducing yields, and supports more beneficial insects. www.nature.com/articles/s43...

12.09.2025 14:25 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

And stay tuned: we'll be putting together at least a webinar or two by the spring to explain and explore EPA's Insecticide and Herbicide Strategies and what they might mean for listed species

12.09.2025 13:58 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Mitigation Math: Webinar Offers Tips to Tally Points for Pesticide Use In 2026, more pesticide labels are likely to require measures to protect endangered species. EPA is offering a webinar next week to help farmers navigate these requirements.

Newly registered or re-registered insecticides and herbicides will be rolling out with labels that may require drift/runoff mitigations to protect ESA-listed species. Learn more about how to navigate the menu of mitigations in a 90 min webinar next Tuesday from EPA: www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/...

12.09.2025 13:55 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0