The insidious Nature of Neonic Pesticides, with Michael Miller

The Orvis Fly-Fishing Podcast

James Hathaway

Bass, Fishing, Bonefish, Wilderness, Flyfishing, Trout, How To, Steelhead, Bluegill, Fly, Orvis, Sports, Salmon, Panfish, Education, Rosenbauer

4.8 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2023

⏱️ 84 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Warning—this week's podcast with biologist Michael Miller [36:28] is not exactly uplifting, in fact it's downright depressing. I feel that neonic pesticides are the main reason we have seen dramatic declines of insects on our trout streams and may be even more of a threat to invertebrate populations than climate change. But it is a problem we can remedy more easily than climate change because it's mostly a problem in the United States (Canada and the EU have either banned or greatly restricted their use). I hope this podcast makes all of you take action and raise your voices to get the EPA to ban these dangerous chemicals.

On a happier note, we have some wonderful questions in the Fly Box this week, including:

It's great to hear that Tom gets skunked as often as the rest of us.

Why did I see mayflies when I was a mile from the nearest stream?

Do bright fly lines spook fish?

Why were fish slashing at my streamer without me hooking them?

I am having problems casting a 15-foot leader

Where should I take my sons fishing in the Bozeman/Livingston area if I can't afford a guide?

If I hook a fish deep in its throat, should I try to get the fly out or cut the tippet?

Can I get closer to fish in a riffle?

What are Tom's top 5 trout flies?

I am losing a lot of fish on my 10-foot 3-weight rod. What should I do differently? Where do big trout tend to live in a river?

If I am catching just small fish will there be any big fish around?

I can't get my floating line to float well, even after cleaning it. What can I do?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi and welcome to the Orvis Fly Fishing Podcast.
0:13.9	This is your host Tom Rosenbauer and I've got some bad news for you.
0:17.9	I got a podcast that's going to make you kind of depressed and kind of angry but hopefully
0:24.4	it will spur a lot of people into action because in my opinion it's an important
0:29.9	issue.
0:30.9	We're going to talk with Mike Miller, a biologist from Wisconsin about the use of pesticide,
0:41.2	new, relatively new form of pesticide called neonix and I don't believe it's any surprise
0:50.0	that the decline in insects that we've seen over the past 10 or 15 years is very much
1:00.7	related I think to the use of these pesticides, the overuse of these pesticides and in my opinion
1:10.0	we need to stop using them as soon as possible or at least dramatically decrease the use
1:16.4	of these pesticides.
1:19.9	In the 1970s we banned DDT and there's no reason that we can't find another alternative
1:27.4	to using these chemicals on our lands and our waters.
1:33.0	Anyway, I apologize for not bringing you something uplifting and fun but I do believe
1:40.6	it's really important and so I hope you take some action after listening to this podcast.
1:50.2	Now we can talk a little phishing and let's do some more fun stuff, we'll do the flybox
1:56.2	and the flybox is where you ask me questions and I try to answer them.
2:01.5	You can send me your question either just type it in an email or attach a voice file
2:07.4	and the email address is podcast at orvis.com so without further ado, let's start with
2:15.8	an email from Michael.
2:19.6	I wanted to thank you for a remark you made in last week's podcast.
2:23.0	In passing a response to some remark your guest made you said I'd just spent three days
	...

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