Fleabane or bee bane

I bought a packet of dab-on flea killer for the kittens today. They have reached the age when flea infestation begins but they haven't developed immunity to the bites so they keep scratching. I don't de-flea our adults cats and only occasionally de-worm them because I believe it's normal for all animals (including us) to carry parasites and so long as they are healthy an equilibrium is reached which does no harm. It's not in the interests of the parasite to damage its host, in the case of mammals, and some can actually confer benefits. (One or two comments on my blip yesterday mentioned the use of parasitic worms to treat chronic gut conditions in humans.)

If you go to the vet you are confronted in the waiting room by graphic images on posters and pamphlets of the life cycle of fleas and worms, drawn large and brightly coloured and calculated to induce repulsion. Your understandable reaction is to buy the advertised product; it's a well-established marketing ploy and over the lifetime of a pet the profit to be garnered is substantial, considering the treatment is recommended to be repeated every few months and it's not cheap.

The active ingredient in these medications (including the one I bought today) is imidacloprid , a nicotine-derived systemic insecticide produced by the drug company Bayer and very widely used for agricultural crop sprays, maximising yields by destroying pests. And honey bees. Imidacloprid gets into them via the pollen and nectar they collect and it's highly toxic, affecting their behaviour so they become disorientated and desert the hive. It's regarded as responsible for Colony Collapse Disorder and the drastic decline in honey bee numbers. There's no clear evidence of its effect on wild bees, butterflies and other insects but we may sure it ain't good.
France, Germany and Italy have banned or suspended the use of this pesticide.
The results of attempts by Bayer to demonstrate that it is safe have been found to be flawed.
Read about all this here and here.

And the flowers? They are Fleabane, a plant that can be found in damp places, blooming in now in the late summer. The leaves are mildly pungent and, dried, were formerly used to repel fleas and flies. Certainly not as effective as imidacloprid but oh so much less harmful.

(Flea medication for pets probably doesn't directly affect bees but if the use of imidacloprid were banned for their sake then we might have to put up with a few more fleas.)