We value your privacy, so we only use essential cookies to make this site work, plus additional cookies to improve it over time. We never share these with third parties other than for these reasons.

Accept all cookies Reject non-essential cookies

Manage cookies

Remove pesticides from UK shelves

Remove pesticides from UK shelves

Sign
image of Remove pesticides from UK shelves

Join the Butterfly Rescue Mission 

Sign our open letter to UK retailers, asking them to remove synthetic pesticides from sale, for a wilder, butterfly-filled future for generations to come. 

The UK has just experienced its sunniest spring and hottest summer on record – with some great weather conditions for butterflies. Yet the results of our Big Butterfly Count show butterflies were only seen in broadly average numbers and that even the sunniest of weather has done little to reverse the long-term decline of our beleaguered butterflies. 

Butterflies need two things to thrive: good weather and a healthy environment. Unless we take ...

Join the Butterfly Rescue Mission 

Sign our open letter to UK retailers, asking them to remove synthetic pesticides from sale, for a wilder, butterfly-filled future for generations to come. 

The UK has just experienced its sunniest spring and hottest summer on record – with some great weather conditions for butterflies. Yet the results of our Big Butterfly Count show butterflies were only seen in broadly average numbers and that even the sunniest of weather has done little to reverse the long-term decline of our beleaguered butterflies. 

Butterflies need two things to thrive: good weather and a healthy environment. Unless we take urgent action to improve the environment for our butterflies, by restoring habitats and reducing pesticide use, we are unlikely to see a great recovery in butterfly numbers, regardless of how much the sun shines. 

There are small actions we all need to take to help rescue our butterflies. 

Butterfly Conservation is advocating for stronger regulations on butterfly-harming synthetic pesticides within the natural environment, including our gardens. This ask of the Government forms part of our rescue mission, using our expertise to challenge the biggest threats to the lifecycles of butterflies and moths. 

And it’s not just us. A record number of participants during 2025’s Big Butterfly Count show that the public are doing their bit to rescue our garden butterflies. Not only taking part in crucial monitoring efforts, but by creating Wild Spaces to welcome butterflies back into gardens and talking to local authorities about becoming Butterfly-Friendly Councils.  

We are all doing our bit - we now need retailers to step up and help. It is our collective responsibility to take action. 

We need retailers to join our rescue mission for butterflies and stop the sale of synthetic pesticides. 

Amateur-use synthetic pesticides are man-made chemicals that are sold in supermarkets and used in the natural environment with no monitoring of the amount used, where they’re used, or the impacts they have on the wider ecosystem. 

We need retailers to join our rescue mission and lead the way in switching to natural gardening methods, by removing synthetic pesticides from sale. We are in a nature crisis. People want to help, and we should be providing them with the tools to do so, not the means for destruction. 

+

Remove Pesticides from UK Shelves

To UK retailers, 

We are in a Butterfly Emergency. We need retailers to act. 

The results of this summer’s Big Butterfly Count are in, and show that in the year when the UK experienced its sunniest spring and hottest summer, butterfly numbers only reached average levels, with many species remaining in long-term decline. 

Butterflies need two things to thrive: good weather and a healthy environment.  

Results from 15 years of Big Butterfly Count have shown that more than twice as many widespread species have declined significantly than have increased. There remains a need for us to take urgent action to support our butterfly populations, including improving the environment in which they live, restoring habitat and reducing pesticide use.  

Until we do these things we are unlikely to see a great recovery in butterfly numbers, regardless of how much the sun shines. 

We are urgently forming a rescue plan to save these vital pollinators alongside scientists and experts from across the sector. Butterfly Conservation supporters and your customers are doing what they can do to help save butterflies before it’s too late.  

But it is the responsibility of all of us to take action using the resources and influence we have, which is why we are asking the UK’s retailers to phase out the domestic sale of synthetic pesticides which kill or cause harm to butterflies, moths, their caterpillars and their habitat. 

Removing these products from sale will enable customers to safely shop knowing none of the products on offer will harm butterflies at any stage of their lifecycle. 

Butterfly Conservation is advocating for stronger regulations on the use of hazardous chemicals within the natural environment. This is an opportunity for the UK’s retailers to lead the switch to natural gardening methods and to help us restore butterflies’ numbers for future generations. We are in a nature crisis and people want to help. We need to provide them with the tools to save nature and not the means to destroy it. 

Butterfly Conservation is ready to work together with retailers who want their garden supplies to be butterfly friendly.  

Will you remove butterfly and caterpillar killing pesticides from sale? 

We need you to be part of a future filled with the colour and joy of butterflies. Stand up for butterflies and remove synthetic pesticides today. 

Kind regards, 

Butterfly Conservation 

How we use the data you enter on this form

Our promise to you

  • We will never swap, sell or rent your details to anyone
  • We will always follow the strict code of conduct set out by the Fundraising Regulator
  • You can change how you hear from us or unsubscribe from emails at any time, just let us know.

Do Gooder (the advocacy platform powering this online action) processes personal information from you that you enter on this form so that we can provide the functions and related services to you and The Campaigner (the organisation responsible for this online action) for their legitimate purposes, including possibly exporting it to other systems, and to effectively respond to enquiries and communications related to those services.

Specifically when you enter:

  • Your location data (residential address or postcode) it is used to locate your elected representative, to pre-populate your email signature and to provide The Campaigner with a visualisation of the location of the support for this campaign.

  • All other data you may enter, including your email address, name, telephone number, commentary and so on is used by The Campaigner to advocate for the campaign’s goals and where required may be sent to the target of the campaign.

The data collected by Do Gooder is also used by us in aggregate form to improve the service and may be held on your behalf outside your country of residence by our third party service providers. These providers are bound by contract to only use personal information on our behalf, in accordance with agreed terms. While the privacy laws of the country in which personal information is stored or transferred may be different from those in your country, we will always have safeguards in place when storing or transferring personal information. We will never sell, rent, loan or in any other way pass your information on to other parties other than to provide this service to you and The Campaigner.

The personal information collected by Do Gooder is held subject to a Data Processing Agreement between Do Gooder and The Campaigner in compliance with the EU's GDPR and Australian law.

Learn more about our privacy policy here

How is my data used?