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Home Depot, the world's largest garden supply store, has completely removed neonicotinoid pesticides, a major cause of global bee population declines from 80 percent of its flowering plants. Its main aim is to stop the use of the chemical in its plant products by 2018.

It arrived at this decision after groups like Friends of the Earth went on a drive asking the home-improvement giant to stop supporting plants that are subjected to the insecticide, reported eNews Park Forest.

Home Depot has already begun to take efforts to stop the insecticide. After a report by the Friends of the Earth and the Pesticide Research Institute were released in 2014, the home-improvement giant said that its suppliers will label all plants treated with the pesticides by the .end of the year.

Lisa Archer, Food and Technology program director at Friends of the Earth U.S., believes that Home Depot had taken a huge step forward, though she believes that Home Depot can do much more.

"Home Depot's progress in removing neonics shows it is listening to consumer concerns and to the growing body of science telling us we need to move away from bee-toxic pesticides. However, we know that Home Depot and other retailers can do even more to address the bee crisis," she said.

Neonicotinoid pesticides fall in the class of "systemic class insecticides". They inhabit not only the surface but even the stems, roots, flowers, and pollens as well. Bees, a great friend of the plant world, get killed when they come in contact with the chemicals, according to Take Part.

"Along with allies, we will continue to challenge retailers to engage in a race to the top to move bee-toxic pesticides off their shelves and out of garden plants as soon as possible. Bees are the canary in the coal mine for our food system and everyone, including the business community, must act quickly to protect them," Archer added.