Influence of Pesticide Residues on Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Colony Health in France

Abstract

A 3-yr field survey was carried out in France, from 2002 to 2005, to study honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colony health in relation to pesticide residues found in the colonies. This study was motivated by recent massive losses of honey bee colonies, and our objective was to examine the possible relationship between low levels of pesticide residues in apicultural matrices (honey, pollen collected by honey bees, beeswax) and colony health as measured by colony mortality and adult and brood population abundance. When all apicultural matrices were pooled together, the number of pesticide residue detected per sampling period (four sampling periods per year) and per apiary ranged from 0 to 9, with the most frequent being two (29.6%). No pesticide residues were detected during 12.7% of the sampling periods. Residues of imidacloprid and 6- chloronicotinic acid were the most frequently detected in pollen loads, honey, and honey bee matrices. Several pairs of active ingredients were present concurrently within honey bees and in pollen loads but not in beeswax and honey samples. No statistical relationship was found between colony mortality and pesticide residues. When pesticide residues from all matrices were pooled together, a mixed model analysis did not show a significant relationship between the presence of pesticide residues and the abundance of brood and adults, and no statistical relationship was found between colony mortality and pesticide residues. Thus, although certain pesticide residues were detected in apicultural matrices and occasionally with another pesticide residual, more work is needed to determine the role these residues play in affecting colony health.

Honeybee Communication and Pollination

“…Thiacloprid, another neonicotinoid, is toxic to honeybees (Decourtye et al, 2010) and is also extensively used in honeybee pollinated crops (Moritz et al, 2010). Residues of these insecticides are commonly found inside the hives of managed colonies (Mullin et al, 2010;Chauzat et al, 2009), yet no clear relationship has been made between pesticides and the increased loss of managed honeybees.…”

Interaction between pesticides and other factors in effects on bees

“…LD50 μg/kg based on bee weighing 0.1g -data from EPA Ecotox database, ANSES Agritox database, Greig-Smith et al (1994) (Faucon et al, 2002) 14.6-29 µg/kg tau fluvalinate (Ghini et al, 2004) 14 monitoring stations of 2 hives observed weekly, analysis of when threshold of 250 dead bees/week reached (Wiest et al, 2011)16 apiaries in Pay de Loire 145 samples (Chauzat et al, 2009) 24 apiaries at 5 sites across France to give a total of 120 hives.…”

“…In France (Chauzat et al, 2009) and (Chauzat et al, 2011) reported the levels of a range of pesticides on honey and wax samples collected from 24 apiaries at 5 sites across France, a total of 120 hives. The main types of honey were chestnut, oilseed rape, sunflower, and local mixed flower honey and 14.2% of honey samples contained two or three active ingredients had frequencies of 12.1 and 2.1%, respectively but unfortunately these were not specificd.…”

Mathematical methods for assessment and analysis of honey yield data for Bulgaria and the European Union for the period 1961-2014

“…The consequences of climate change on bee honey yield are also an object of studies by various authors (Diegado et al, 2012;Paraiso et al, 2012;Switanek et al, 2017). The treatment of agricultural areas with different insecticides also has a negative effect on the quantity of bee colonies (Chauzat et al, 2009). Diseases of bees are an important factor.…”