Journal ArticleDOI
Risk assessment for side-effects of neonicotinoids against bumblebees with and without impairing foraging behavior.
Veerle Mommaerts,Sofie Reynders,Jana Boulet,Linde Besard,Guido Sterk,Guy Smagghe,Guy Smagghe +6 more
TLDR
It is recommended that behavior tests should be included in risk assessment tests for highly toxic pesticides because impairment of the foraging behavior can result in a decreased pollination, lower reproduction and finally in colony mortality due to a lack of food.Abstract:
Bombus terrestris bumblebees are important pollinators of wild flowers, and in modern agriculture they are used to guarantee pollination of vegetables and fruits. In the field it is likely that worker bees are exposed to pesticides during foraging. To date, several tests exist to assess lethal and sublethal side-effects of pesticides on bee survival, growth/development and reproduction. Within the context of ecotoxicology and insect physiology, we report the development of a new bioassay to assess the impact of sublethal concentrations on the bumblebee foraging behavior under laboratory conditions. In brief, the experimental setup of this behavior test consists of two artificial nests connected with a tube of about 20 cm and use of queenless micro-colonies of 5 workers. In one nest the worker bees constructed brood, and in the other food (sugar and pollen) was provided. Before exposure, the worker bees were allowed a training to forage for untreated food; afterwards this was replaced by treated food. Using this setup we investigated the effects of sublethal concentrations of the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid, known to negatively affect the foraging behavior of bees. For comparison within the family of neonicotinoid insecticides, we also tested different concentrations of two other neonicotinoids: thiamethoxam and thiacloprid, in the laboratory with the new bioassay. Finally to evaluate the new bioassay, we also tested sublethal concentrations of imidacloprid in the greenhouse with use of queenright colonies of B. terrestris, and here worker bees needed to forage/fly for food that was placed at a distance of 3 m from their hives. In general, the experiments showed that concentrations that may be considered safe for bumblebees can have a negative influence on their foraging behavior. Therefore it is recommended that behavior tests should be included in risk assessment tests for highly toxic pesticides because impairment of the foraging behavior can result in a decreased pollination, lower reproduction and finally in colony mortality due to a lack of food.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Bee declines driven by combined stress from parasites, pesticides, and lack of flowers
TL;DR: The stresses bees are experiencing from climate change, infectious diseases, and insecticides are reviewed, with concern that the authors may be nearing a “pollination crisis” in which crop yields begin to fall.
Journal ArticleDOI
REVIEW: An overview of the environmental risks posed by neonicotinoid insecticides
TL;DR: Major knowledge gaps remain, but current use of neonicotinoids is likely to be impacting on a broad range of non-target taxa including pollinators and soil and aquatic invertebrates and hence threatens a range of ecosystem services.
Journal ArticleDOI
Neonicotinoid Pesticide Reduces Bumble Bee Colony Growth and Queen Production
TL;DR: Given the scale of use of neonicotinoid insecticides, it is suggested that they may be having a considerable negative impact on wild bumble bee populations across the developed world.
Journal ArticleDOI
Neonicotinoids in bees: a review on concentrations, side-effects and risk assessment
TL;DR: The proposed risk assessment scheme for systemic compounds was shown to be applicable to assess the risk for side-effects of neonicotinoids as it considers the effect on different life stages and different levels of biological organization (organism versus colony).
Journal ArticleDOI
Seed coating with a neonicotinoid insecticide negatively affects wild bees
Maj Rundlöf,Georg K.S. Andersson,Riccardo Bommarco,Ingemar Fries,Veronica Hederström,Lina Herbertsson,Ove Jonsson,Björn K. Klatt,Thorsten Rahbek Pedersen,Johanna Yourstone,Henrik G. Smith +10 more
TL;DR: It is shown that a commonly used insecticide seed coating in a flowering crop can have serious consequences for wild bees, and the contribution of pesticides to the global decline of wild bees may have been underestimated.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
The Sublethal Effects of Pesticides on Beneficial Arthropods
TL;DR: The different types of sublethal effects on beneficial arthropods, focusing mainly on honey bees and natural enemies, are characterized, and the methods used in these studies are described.
Journal ArticleDOI
Mechanism for the differential toxicity of neonicotinoid insecticides in the honey bee, Apis mellifera
TL;DR: In this article, the contact honey bee toxicity of commercial and candidate neonicotinoid insecticides was evaluated and it was shown that P450s are an important mechanism for acetamiprid and thiacloprid detoxification and their low toxicity to honey bees.
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Discrepancy between acute and chronic toxicity induced by imidacloprid and its metabolites in Apis mellifera
TL;DR: Oral acute and chronic toxicity of imidacloprid and its main metabolites and their main metabolites were investigated in Apis mellifera to study the rapid appearance of neurotoxicity symptoms and bee mortality induced only 72 h after the onset of intoxication.
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Thiamethoxam is a neonicotinoid precursor converted to clothianidin in insects and plants
TL;DR: In this article, it was shown that thiamethoxam is likely a neonicotinoid precursor for clothianidin, an open-chain nAChR inhibitor.
Journal ArticleDOI
Effects of imidacloprid and deltamethrin on associative learning in honeybees under semi-field and laboratory conditions
TL;DR: As with free-flying bees, no impact of deltamethrin was found on the learning performances of restrained individuals in the PER procedure, whilst significant effects were found with imidacloprid in both semi-field and laboratory conditions.