Parents of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in the UK (n=241) were asked to describe the impact of COVID-19 on their own mental health and that of their child. An inductive content analysis of the data was undertaken. Both parents and children appear to be experiencing loss, worry and changes in mood and behaviour as a result of the rapid social changes that have occurred. Some parents reported feeling overwhelmed and described the impact of child understanding and awareness. Finally, a minority of parents reported that COVID-19 has had little impact on mental health in their family, or has even led to improvements. Implications for how to support these families in the immediate future are discussed.

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Farmers, regulators, and researchers rely on pesticide use data to assess the effects of pesticides on crop yield, farm economics, off-target organisms, and human health. The publicly available pesticide use data in the United States do not currently account for pesticides applied as seed treatments. We find that seed treatment use has increased in major field crops over the last several decades but that there is a high degree of uncertainty about the extent of acreage planted with treated seeds, the amount of regional variability, and the use of certain active ingredients. One reason for this uncertainty is that farmers are less likely to know what pesticides are on their seed than they are about what pesticides are applied conventionally to their crops. This lack of information affects the quality and availability of seed treatment data and also farmers’ ability to tailor pesticide use to production and environmental goals.

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22Insects are facing multifaceted stressors in the Anthropocene and are in decline in many parts of 23 the world. The widespread use of pesticides is believed to be an important part of the problem. In 24 particular, the monarch butterfly is in sharp decline in the western United States. Here we show 25 that milkweeds in the Central Valley of California, a large urban and agricultural landscape that 26 is part of the monarch breeding and migration route, are contaminated with a diverse array of 27 pesticides. We found a few in high concentrations and many in trace amounts. We do not know 28 how these compounds act together and with other large-scale stressors to cause declines, but it is 29 clear that monarchs and other non-target insects are encountering these pesticides. These results 30 provide critical insight into the growing literature on the impact of pesticides on butterflies 31 specifically and non-target insects more broadly. We hope these field realistic concentrations 32 will aid in the design of further experiments in the field and the lab. 33 34 Abstract 35 Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) are in decline in the western United States and are 36 encountering a range of anthropogenic stressors. Pesticides are among the factors that likely 37 contribute to this decline, though the concentrations of these chemicals in non-crop plants is not 38 well documented, especially in complex landscapes with a diversity of crop types and land uses.39In this study, we collected 227 milkweed (Asclepias spp.) leaf samples from 19 sites representing 40 different land use types across the Central Valley of California. We also sampled plants 41 purchased from two stores that sell to home gardeners. We found 64 pesticides (25 insecticides, 42 27 fungicides, and 11 herbicides, as well as 1 adjuvant) out of a possible 262 in our screen. 43Pesticides were detected in every sample, even at sites with little or no pesticide use based on 44 information from landowners. On average, approximately 9 compounds were detected per plant 45 across all sites, with a range of 1 to 25 compounds in any one sample. For the vast majority of 46 pesticides detected, we do not know the biological effects on monarch caterpillars that consume 47 these plants, however we did detect a few compounds for which effects on monarchs have been 48 experimentally investigated. Chlorantraniliprole in particular was identified in 91% of our 49 samples and found to exceed a tested LD50 for monarchs in 58 out of 227 samples. Our primary 50 conclusion is the ubiquity of pesticide presence in milkweeds in an early-summer window of 51 time that monarch larvae are likely to be present in the area. Thus, these results are consistent 52 with the hypothesis that pesticide exposure could be a contributing factor to monarch declines in 53 the western United States. This both highlights the need for a greater understanding of the lethal 54 and sublethal effects of these compounds (individually, additively, and synergistically) and 55 suggests the urgent need for s...

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The decline of monarch butterflies in both the eastern and western United States has garnered widespread public interest. Planting milkweed has been promoted as one action that individuals can take, but very little is known with respect to potential pesticide contamination of store-bought milkweeds during the process of production and transport to market. In this study, we collected 235 milkweed leaf samples from 33 retail nurseries across the US to screen for pesticides. Across all samples, we detected 61 different pesticides with an average of 12.2 compounds per leaf. While most of the compounds have unknown effects on caterpillars, 48 samples contained a pesticide at a concentration that exceeds a published lepidopteran LD50 and 89 contained a pesticide above a concentration shown to have a sub-lethal effect for a monarch. We detected only modest effects of store size and milkweed species; however, plants with labels advertising their value for wildlife were more likely to contain pesticides at concentrations known to have negative effects on monarchs. These results demonstrate the extensiveness of pesticide exposure within nursery milkweeds and the potential impacts on monarch caterpillars and other insects consuming store-bought plants.