Tools and Strategies for Pollinator Protection

There are many ways to minimize the exposure of bees and other pollinators to pesticides. This page describes some pollinator protection strategies used at the local, state, and federal level to preserve pollinators and their habitats. These strategies include Best Management Practices (BMPs), Managed Pollinator Protection Plans (MP3s), and mitigation measures to reduce pesticide exposure. Utilizing these practices can help protect pollinators and the plants who depend on them. 

EPA evaluates pesticides (e.g., insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, disinfectants, and biological products) for their risk to human health and the environment, including pollinator species. To assess risk to bees, EPA generally requires a suite of tests which follow methods outlined in EPA’s Pollinator Risk Assessment Guidance documents. EPA’s risk assessments for pollinators inform regulatory decisions on the proper use, storage, and disposal instructions on pesticide labels. These labels dictate how and when specific pesticides can be used and how risks can be mitigated.

Learn more about how EPA assesses risks to pollinators.

On this page:

• Best Management Practices (BMPs)
• Managed Pollinator Protection Plans (MP3s)
• Pesticide mitigation measures to protect pollinators
• EPA collaborations with tribes

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Best Management Practices (BMPs)

Best Management Practices are effective methods for protecting bees and other pollinators from exposure to pesticides. BMPs include applying insecticides when pollinators are not foraging for pollen or nectar and maintaining pesticide application equipment in good working order. EPA has compiled a list of pollinator protection BMPs from organizations and states. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has also released conservation guidance for the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee (Bombus affinis).

Managed Pollinator Protection Plans (MP3s)

A Managed Pollinator Protection Plan (MP3) is a voluntary agreement between stakeholders, including federal, state, or local authorities, corporations, landowners, and private citizens, to enact strategies to protect pollinators. EPA is working with state and tribal agencies to develop and implement MP3s to address potential pesticide exposure to bees at and beyond the site of the application. States and tribes have the flexibility to determine the scope of pollinator protection plans that best responds to pollinator issues in their regions.  

Characteristics of MP3s may include: 

• public stakeholder participation, 
• methods for stakeholder groups to communicate with each other, 
• methods to minimize risk of pesticides to bees including Best Management Practices, 
• a plan for public outreach, 
• a mechanism to measure MP3’s effectiveness, and
• a process to periodically review and update the plan.

Many MP3s include as part of their plans provisions to increase pollinator habitat by enlisting the assistance of property owners to plant pollinator-attractive plants, distributing seed packets for diverse and abundant food sources for pollinators, and establishing native plants such as milkweed in low traffic areas and areas where pesticides are not used.

MP3s engage relevant stakeholders at the local level and are designed with the input of crop producers, beekeepers, and pesticide applicators. Most MP3s include standard operating procedures (SOPs) and BMPs designed to reduce pollinator exposure to pesticides. They are often used to train agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and to educate the public on how to reduce pollinator exposure to pesticides. MP3s are an ideal way to learn about and engage in effective approaches to protect pollinators.

In 2019 the Association of American Pesticide Control Officials (AAPCO) conducted a survey to evaluate the status of state and tribal MP3s. EPA is using the results of the survey and other data as a means of assessing the effectiveness of pollinator protection efforts. According to the 2019 AAPCO survey, many states have developed or are in the process of developing MP3s to safeguard pollinators. States reported increased coordination and communication between beekeepers and pesticide applicators, a reduction in verified pesticide-related bee kill incidents, and an increased understanding of pesticide label comprehension by users.

Pesticide Mitigation Measures to Protect Pollinators

When EPA identifies potential risk to pollinators associated with registered uses of pesticides, EPA develops mitigation measures that the Agency can require through the pesticide’s label to protect the pollinator species at risk. Some mitigation measures may include:

• Bloom-time restrictions: The pesticide cannot be applied when a plant is blooming because blooms attract pollinators
• Crop-stage restrictions: Similar to bloom-time restrictions, pesticide applications are limited during the phases of a plant’s growth where it may be attractive to pollinators
• Time of Day Restrictions: The pesticide can only be applied before dawn or after dusk because many pollinators are mainly active during the day
• Reductions of the rate at which the pesticide may be applied to minimize the risk to pollinators
• Ground and aerial buffers to establish areas where pesticides can’t be applied around important pollinator habitats 
• Vegetative filter strips, areas of untreated vegetation along waterways, to help prevent pesticide runoff, which can destroy the plants that pollinators rely on
• Disallowing the use of a pesticide within a certain range of pollinator habitat
• Prohibiting use on particular crops which are attractive to pollinators
• Restricting use to professional applicators to reduce improper exposure of pollinators to pesticides via accidents or misuse
• Spray drift reduction measures such as setting a maximum windspeed for when applications can occur, lowering the application height for boom and aerial sprayers, and selecting nozzle sizes that deliver larger droplets

The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental organization focused on economic development and trade, has also compiled risk mitigation measures. Their site provides additional links to label mitigation, non-label mitigation, education, and training information. Here, you can find additional information on mitigation measures used by countries that are members of the OECD.

In a recent regulatory decision for two herbicide products, Enlist and Enlist Duo, EPA determined that the registrant must develop, implement, maintain, and annually update a pollinator protection stewardship plan. The purpose of this plan is to address potential impacts from the product’s use to insect pollinators, including bees and butterflies. The plan must include education materials that describe the importance of pollinator protection in agriculture and BMPs to reduce potential pesticide exposure to pollinators including, but not exclusive to, monarch butterflies. Education materials must also describe label provisions intended to minimize the potential for product exposure to pollinators, including updated environmental hazard and non-target organism advisory statements, and new application timing restrictions. Additionally, the pollinator protection stewardship plan must include conservation activities that result in meaningful restoration of habitat used by monarch butterflies and other insect pollinators to address potential impacts from this product’s use, taking into account species’ range and habitat requirements.

Another way EPA protects species that pollinators depend on is through advisory language on pesticide labels. This language indicates the potential impact to species like pollinators, resulting from potential impacts of a pesticide to the species’ habitat. Anyone who applies a pesticide should always read the label thoroughly before use and look carefully for any hazard or advisory language on pesticides. These hazard and advisory statements, when followed, are an important way to help protect pollinators.

The Pacific Northwest Publication by Hoven et al., How to Reduce Bee Poisoning from Pesticides provides more information on effective pollinator-protecting mitigation measures.

EPA Collaborations with Tribes

Many of the 574 federally recognized tribes have important, long-standing relationships with wild pollinators and have incorporated pollinators into their long-term conservation strategies. This doesn’t account for the over 200 tribes that are not federally recognized that may have similar cultural relationships with pollinators. For tribal communities, native or wild pollinators have cultural, historic, ecological, and scientific value. Many tribes have a land ethic which states that a monetary value cannot be placed on nature nor the systems that support its sustainability such as water systems, soil health, biodiversity, and pollinator health. Pollinators help to provide food security for tribal communities and are needed for the continued production of plants and pollens that are of cultural importance to Native American tribes.

EPA implements pesticide regulations regarding the manufacture and use of pesticides and provides expertise to tribes, training, and opportunities for partnerships when pesticide issues affect tribal lands. EPA partners with the Tribal Pesticide Program Council (TPPC), a network of tribal representatives from over 30 tribes and intertribal consortia that is a technical resource and development and policy dialogue group focused on tribal pesticide issues and concerns. EPA and the TPPC formed a workgroup to address pollinator protection and create resources for tribes. The TPPC Pollinator Workgroup collaborates with the Center for Native Pollinator Conservation to share resources with tribes. You can explore some of these pollinator resources and find more information about the workgroup on the TPPC website.