Environmental toxins in the holiday paradise: Pesticide contamination has been proven as far away as the mountains of South Tyrol. Nearly half of the insecticides and six herbicides found in the Vinschgau Valley were found in insect samples.
Pesticides have also been detected at higher altitudes and at greater distances from the growing areas, but hardly in areas with hardly any apple cultivation, such as the upper Vinsgau valley. The study published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment provides a possible explanation for the decline in butterflies in mountain meadows.