Domestic gardens supply pollinators with valuable habitats, but the risk of exposure to pesticides has been little investigated. Artificial nesting shelters of a red mason bee species (Osmia bicornis) were placed in two suburban gardens and two commercial fruit orchards to determine the contamination of forage sources by pesticides. Larval pollen provisions were collected from a total of 14 nests. They consisted mainly of pollen from oaks (65–100% weight/sample), Brassicaceae (≤34% w/s) and fruit trees (≤1.6% w/s). Overall, 30 pesticides were detected and each sample contained a mixture of 11–21 pesticide residues. The pesticide residues were significantly lower in garden samples than in orchard samples. The difference was attributed mainly to the abundant fungicides pyrimethanil and boscalid, which were sprayed in fruit orchards and were present on average at 1004 ppb and 648 ppb in orchard samples, respectively. The results suggested that pollinators can benefit from domestic gardens by foraging from floral sources less contaminated by pesticides than in adjacent croplands.
http://www.eje.cz coccids, and many other pests. It is able to suppress black cherry aphid Myzus cerasi (Fabricius, 1775), pear psylla Cacopsylla pyri (Linnaeus, 1761), apple aphid Aphis pomi (de Geer, 1773), mealy plum aphid Hyalopterus pruni (Geoffroy, 1762), and green peach aphid Myzus persicae (Sulzer, 1776) in orchards (Nedvěd, 2014). Because of its success in pest suppression, this beetle has been introduced as a biocontrol agent around the world (Kuroda
Rodent bark gnawing is common during winter in times of low or unavailable food supply. During the growing season, it is a rare phenomenon, but can occur due to low food supply and/or poor food quality resulting from climatic influence. We evaluated this unusual damage of apple tree (Malus domestica) orchards by rodents in two localities in the Czech Republic. In 2019, 24% of trees in the orchard in Brno were gnawed by the common vole (Microtus arvalis) population. Damage in the Holovousy orchard by water vole (Arvicola amphibius) was inspected in 2020 and showed that 15% of trees were damaged with massive root gnawing. These findings were compared with gnawing in forest beech plantations in 2019, with up to 13% of trees damaged. Three rodent species (Microtus agrestis, M. arvalis and Clethrionomys glareolus) participated in the damage. Detailed description of the various vole species’ damage in vegetation period, which somehow differs from winter time damage, may help in the future in early recognition and early application of plant protection in times when this phenomenon may reappear.
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