Please Help Rebuild Costa Honey Farm Because of Pesticide

Please see FreeApiariesFromOverspray.com for videos and documents.

After 5 years of very hard work and a lot of studying to get the hives very strong and healthy, an admitted egregious misuse/unlawful application of a pesticide completely wiped out Costa Honey Farm in Summerfield, Florida. Due to Fipronil poisoning, all hives will be destroyed and we have to start all over. FDACS's pesticide department is either extremely incompetent or they are compromised. If it is incompetence, they have reached a level that very few people reach. They have been an extreme letdown, so this is why we are asking for help. Every way we turn for help has been a dead end.

Please visit Fdacs.gov and do a public records request for case 325 - 199 - 2129 to confirm all information provided here. Please point out any inaccuracies of ours. 

Time is just as valuable as money. If you’d rather pay for something or donate your time, we would greatly appreciate it. 

We urgently need 

-video editor to edit 5+hrs of MCSO bodycam footage and 2 full days of testing from 6 angles 

-attorneys

-someone to create PowerPoint videos

-competent and complete pesticide and herbicide testing to ensure my property is safe to start over. 

-someone who can hold FDACS accountable.

All funds will go towards rebuilding Costa Honey Farm, legal fees/ research, and making a documentary fighting illegal applications of pesticides. We will be transparent with every dollar spent and every dollar spent will be accounted for in the documentary.

It all started when I tried to buy the lot next door to expand my number of hives and have more of a buffer between neighbors. The builder who owned it forgot about it because they stopped building residential. They sold the lot to another builder for just a few thousand more than my offer without giving me first right of refusal.

They put the driveway just feet from my massive bottlebrush bush (I use as a swarm catcher) that separates our front yards. The garage door is less than 15' from my hives. They put the screen room opening on the side closest to my hives. Their electrical meter on the house is as close to the hives as possible. If they built the house with all of these things on the other side, there would be no issue. The builder and every trade that understood English knew there were bees on the other side of the fence. I asked the builder to inform all trades. The realtor bought honey from us after asking us what was flying over the fence. A few days after my neighbor moved in, I saw her outside and made sure she was aware I had honeybee hives on the other side of her fence.

3/27/25 my neighbor knocked on my door because there was a swarm in her backyard on a hammock. I was unavailable. When I returned home from work, my neighbor saw me and asked me to look at the bees that a pest control company sprayed to be sure they were dead. I walked over there in disgust at the level of stupidity it would take for someone to kill a swarm of bees, then show me. I had no idea this would be the beginning of a time-consuming nightmare. Thank God she did show me, or I would never have known how the Fipronil got into my hives and killed hundreds of thousands of bees. There were dead bees on her hammock and ground, because the tech doused the swarm 2x. There were a lot of honeybees flying around due to being sprayed with Fipronil, which attacks their nervous system.

Two days later, I inspected the hives and saw small piles of dead bees, which is not normal, but happens once in a while when the bees have to clean out something bad in the hive. I noticed something strange with all but 2 hives, which is highly unusual. I didn't have time to look too closely that day, but I did plan on doing a deep dive the next weekend.

The next weekend, 4/6/25, we took the video of the bees acting like they were being electrocuted, and I knew something was very wrong and unnatural. There were dead bees everywhere, big piles under the fronts of the hives. I started making calls right away to report a massive bee kill most likely from a pesticide (specifically fipronil or noenicitinoids). Bridget walked over to the neighbor's house later that day when she saw her come home. Bridget told our neighbor that we needed to know the name of the pest control company because we have piles of dead bees. The neighbor gave Bridget the name, then said she would spray for bees any time they are on her property.

Two days later, 4/8/25, two FDACS apiary inspectors and an FDACS pesticide inspector came to my house to do an inspection. The pesticide inspector seemed to work for the pest control company, because he refused to take samples besides the dead bees that have been in sun for weeks. After getting the Sheriff and the inspector's supervisor involved, FDACS agreed to send two of their best inspectors two days later. Please read below for more details on the first inspector. You can watch the videos at Costa Honey Farm’s YouTube channel. 

Two days later, 4/10/25, two different FDACS pesticide inspectors and the original two apiary inspectors visited my apiary. The apiary inspectors were great, and I thought the new pesticide inspectors were too, but I was wrong about the pesticide inspectors. I had to fight to get the soil sample, and they made it seem like I was crazy for thinking that something was sprayed directly on my hives. The soil sample they did not want to test showed a pesticide and herbicide present. On top of that they have the tech admitting to spraying soffits. Yet, they refused to do more testing.

A local pest control company’s technician’s first affidavit reveals that the tech used a 3.55% mix of Taurus SC to spray a swarm of honeybees on a hammock (neighbor's yard) about 20’ from our hives, plus did a foundation perimeter spray and an eave and soffit spray with the same mix, about 10-12’ from my hives on a day with the average wind speed of 5 mph. Physics prove the tech sprayed our hives because our hives are due east of my neighbor. Plus, a lethal dose of Fipronil was found inside the only hive tested by FDACS. FDACS's inspector called the tech to confirm the mix and allowed the tech to make a new affidavit and change it to a 0.06% mix (matching the label) without requesting extensive tests of soil and hives to verify the exponentially drastic changes. This change was 3 weeks after the admitted egregious misuse of a pesticide and my demands for more thorough testing. As soon as FDACS found out that the tech admittedly sprayed the eaves with an extremely high concentrate, they should have ordered extensive testing of every hive, at the pest control company's expense. They have done absolutely nothing in 10 working days (5/11/25), besides create an extremely inadequate Administrative Report that did not even mention that the unlawful application of a pesticide wiped out an apiary. It ignored many illegal uses and the results of those illegal uses.

The tech, hired in 2014, admitted he could not identify wasps, bumblebees, hornets, or honeybees in an affidavit.

The label is the law and according to the label of Taurus SC, it should never be used:

- on honeybees

- in or on commercial hives

- on a hammock

- on eaves and soffits

- without dead bodies being removed

- at concentrations higher than 0.06%, 2x/year

- on AC units

- and more

Incompetence or corruption of FDACS?

Our first FDACS pesticide inspector has several complaints against him, including FDACS’s supervisor of apiary inspectors and a Sgt from Marion County Sheriff’s Office including her body cam. The body cam is public record, and we sent the money order for body cam footage on 5/2. Today is 5/11 and have zero response after sending the money order. The bodycam footage will be available once we get it and figure out how to share it.

He showed up to an apiary inspection with no bee suit and acted annoyed to be there.

He said there was no need to test dead bees because there are none according to the tech’s legal use of Taurus SC. I told him the apiary inspector saw them. He refused to look over the fence. The apiary inspector supervisor approximated 2000 bees in the pile.

I had to call the Sheriff to ask to gain access to my neighbor’s property because Dan said he could not gain access if he was denied. My research finds the opposite because FDACS's inspectors can access private and public properties during business hours.

On 4/8/25, he did not have proper sampling equipment due to the hurricane. Which hurricane could he have been referring to? He refused the Sheriff Sgt’s request for more testing than just piles of dead bees under my hives. Would you believe he coached my neighbor to use the word anaphylaxis?

This is barely the tip of the iceberg. He acted like he was working for the pest control company. The full complaint was filed with the OIG.

There is a lot more to come as we can share it.

Thank you in advance for your help and sharing our story.