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YOU CAN HELP SAVE THESE VALUABLE POLLINATORS . r� ) Backyard As an experi- "' Wildlife enced wildlife gar- Renee dener, I was skep tical when my Elder eyes first landed on a Bayer Crop - Science media alert announcing the one- year anniversary of its North American Bee Care Center in Research Triangle Park. What little I knew about Bayer — the com- pany that I once associated with children's aspirin — included the fact that its Crop - Science division manufactures pesticides, some containing neonicotinoid, a sub- stance that has been suspected of harming bees and recently was banned from Lowe's home improvement stores. So I called Rebecca Langer, a microbiologist who serves as bee .manager for the $12 " million Bayer Bee Center that opened at RTP in spring 2014. Bayer scientists have been studying bee health and Langer husbandry practices since the early 1990s. Its original Inside bee research facility is in 5 ways to Monheim, Germany. help bees "Bayer has a longstanding thrive, 8C interest in bees, because it's part of our business," said Langer, who cares for 13 hives containing approximately 60,000 bees each at the RTP site. - Although the company's Crop Protec- tion /Seeds division manufactures pesti- cides, herbicides and other agricultural chemicals, it also develops seed strains aimed at improving yields of crops such as cotton, canola and wheat. "We, as much as everyone else, have a need for bees," Langer explains. "We test all of our products for their effect on bees." SEE BEES, PAGE 8C