Managed Pollinator CAP Coordinated Agricultural Project Assessing The Risks Of Honey Bee Exposure To Pesticides

摘要

Abiotic stress from the sublethal effects of pesticides is currently being scrutinized as a contributing factor to poorly understood colony losses. When crop protection chemicals are applied to blooming crops, they can contaminate nectar and pollen. Bees' body hair, designed for collecting pollen, is also an excellent collector of pesticides applied to flowers. For this reason, most pesticide labels prohibit the application of bee-toxic insecticides to plants during bloom. A more recent route of honey bee exposure to pesticides is the shift to treating seeds with systemic insecticides to provide plants protection from insects throughout the growing season. The most widely used systemics are the neonicitinoids including imidaclo-prid, clothianidin, thiamethoxam and thiacloprid.