The effect of application rate of GF-120 (Spinosad) and malathion on the mortality of Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae) foragers
Beneficial organisms like the honey bee, Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae), are heavily affected by pest control practices that incorporate insecticides. Safer alternatives as the spinosad-based formulation GF-120 have been developed to overcome this issue. Though both the low concentration of spinosad and the ultra-low-volume application rate of GF-120 are supposed to have a low acute toxicity in honey bee foragers, to our knowledge such claims have not been explicitly proven. We thus carried out a series of experiments to assess the effect of GF-120, malathion, and Spintor (spinosad) on honey bee foragers when applied at two concentrations (80 and 1,500 ppm) and two application rates (low density rate [LDR]-80 drops of 5mm diameter per square meter; high density rate [HDR]-thousands of 200-µm-diameter droplets per square meter). Interestingly, the three pesticides caused low mortality on foragers when applied at LDR-80, LDR-1,500, or HDR-80. However, HDR-1,500 caused a very high mortality. Based upon these results, we developed a computer program to estimate the average number of foragers that are exposed at LDR and HDR. We found that more foragers receive a lethal dose when exposed at HDR than at the other rates. Our results support the hypothesis that the impact of GF-120 and malathion upon honey bees is minimal when applied at LDR and that computer simulation can help greatly in understanding the effects of pesticides upon nontarget species.
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Texto biblioteca |
| Language: | eng |
| Subjects: | Abeja melífera, Abejas, Plaguicidas, Espinosad, Malatión, Ecotoxicología, Mortalidad, |
| Online Access: | https://academic.oup.com/jee/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/jee/tov385 |
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