Five things you might not know about Bayer's efforts to protect pollinator populations:

1. Before registering any pesticide, including herbicides, the EPA conducts comprehensive evaluations and creates product label requirements to ensure pesticides can be used safely in the environment. This means that products like XtendiMax� herbicide with VaporGrip� Technology, a restricted use pesticide, have passed an extensive, unbiased environmental safety assessment.
2. Because of their importance to food production and farmers, Bayer has spent 30 years studying the factors that affect honey bee health through the Bayer Bee Care program. (Visit beecare.bayer.com to learn more.) In addition, the company's national pollinator forage initiative, the Bayer Feed a Bee Program, recently hit its goal of funding the creation of new, pollinator-attractant wildflower refuges in all 50 states.
3. The EPA's pollinator risk assessment for dicamba shows that direct effects on honey bee larvae and adults ar unlikely for even the highest maximum application rate for the label instructions. This means that the EPA expects no adverse long-term effects on pollinator populations.
4. The XtendiMax with VaporGrip Technology product label includes application requirements to protect endangered species.*
5. Applicators are required by the EPA to consult a sensitive crop registry, like FieldWatch�, and survey adjacent fields prior to application. Through FieldWatch, farmers and beekeepers can also access BeeCheck�, a voluntary communication tool that enables beekeepers and pesticide applicators to work together to protect apiaries through use of the BeeCheck� mapping program. By using registries like these along with specified nozzles and adhering to other label requirements, you're playing an important role in protecting honey bees, pollinator forage and endangered species.