Borates & Bees

[ye olde salt]

So, I've followed the TFP directions for adding borates to U.S.S My Pool. I'm very pleased with the results so far. But, gosh, those Taylor test strips are hard to read. I consider myself pretty good at distinguishing hues, but the indicator does not color uniformly and the 50 and 75 are hard to differentiate. I'm looking in to the mannitol test that Matt posted here. In the meantime: close enough. However:

I've noticed a ton of dead flies accumulating. Which is fine by me; I'd rather have them dead in the water than alive in my face. But, that got me thinking about bees. A quick search of the forum confirmed what I should've already realized: borox kills bees. I haven't seen any dead bees in the water, though. Maybe, it's like Matt suggests and "bees don't come to my pool because the scouts never return to the nest." It's fine if they're just staying away, but I'd be disappointed (and more than a little ashamed) to find out I was killing all of the local colonies.

Does anyone have any data on the effects of borates (at the 50-75 ppm level) on pollinators?

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Boron (EHC 204, 1998)

www.inchem.org

Boron in the diet at concentrations of 0.025-5% caused
sterilization of house flies (Musca domestica) when both sexes were
fed the diet (Borkovec et al., 1969). Boron toxicity in honey bees has
also been observed; a concentration of 50 mg boric acid/litre (8.7 mg
boron/litre) in syrup had no effect on survival, whereas 100 mg boric
acid/litre (17.5 mg boron/litre) caused 50% mortality (Ostrovskij,
1955).

Anything over 17.5ppm will cause a 50% mortality rate. Sadly, wasps seem immune to my pool water’s boron concentration. I’d rather kill them than bees but I also prefer the benefits of having borates in my pool water than not.

As for other pollinators such as hummingbirds and bats, I’ve seen no effect.

 

[ye olde salt]

Much appreciated!

 

[JamesW]

It's pretty effective on ants as well.

 

[AK-]

Last year Japanese Beetles destroyed my grapevines… on hotter days my pool avenged them… removing dead Japanese beetles o. The hundreds per day from the skimmer sock.

 

[Oly]

Rose beetles are another insect attracted in large numbers to open water as are thrips. Fortunately they are seasonal. Honey bees get trapped in the pool all summer. Some make it to the side and can climb out others have to be lifted out after swimming in circles with their wings. More than once I have lifted a bee out only to watch it dry, clean itself then walk right off the edge into the water again.