Pesticides and Pollinators

Abstract

Pesticides, alone and in combination with other factors, have had a devastating effect on honeybees and wild pollinators. Pesticides commonly found in lawn and garden products and used in agriculture are known to be hazardous to bees-some killing bees outright and others with subtle effects that reduce a bee's ability to thrive. Approximately 90 percent of all flowering plants require pollinators to survive. In agriculture, nearly a third of pollination is accomplished by honeybees. Cucumbers, almonds, carrots, melons, apricots, cherries, pears, apples, prunes, plums, cantaloupe, onions, avocados, kiwi, blueberries, cranberries and more depend on honeybee pollination. Wild pollinators Pollinators are "a bellweather for environmental stress as individuals and as colonies." Honeybees are perhaps the best known pollinators in the world and the primary managed pollinators, but they are by no means solely responsible for the pollination of all flowering plants. Both in non-agricultural settings and in agricultural crops, wild, native pollinators play an essential role in plant reproduction and food production. Wild pollinators, which include bees, wasps, beetles, flies, butterflies, moths, birds, bats, and even some non-flying mammals, have suffered "multiple anthropogenic insults" in the last several decades. These include habitat destruction and fragmentation, pesticide use, land management practices and the introduction of non-native species and pathogens, all of which collectively threaten their existence. Pollination is a reminder that ecosystems, including agricultural ecosystems, are comprised of a series of interdependent relationships.

Standard methods for toxicology research inApis mellifera

“…A deleterious compound of the nectar was suspected but not isolated. Johansen (1977) mentioned that queens may be affected by insecticides and behave abnormally. For instance, they may produce a an abnormal brood pattern.…”

Honeybee Communication and Pollination

“…This includes spraying flowers at inappropriate times when honeybees are actively pollinating. In addition, honeybees also have an abnormal communication dance on the horizontal landing board outside the hive after being exposed to pesticides (Johansen, 1977). Moreover, application of sublethal doses of parathion causes mistakes in communicating time sense, distance and direction of feeding sites (Johansen, 1977).…”

Pollinators as bioindicators of the state of the environment: species, activity and diversity

“…In general, guidelines borrowed from the literature on honeybees are used to assess the effects of pesticides but as has been noted, these are not reliable. There are records of evaluated losses of alfalfa leafcutting bees caused by pesticides in the western USA (Johansen, 1977) but by and large there is little information relating specifically to the effects of pesticides on managed non-honeybee pollinators. Issues of pesticides in non-agricultural settings and agroforestry are more complex because of the importance of a wider diversity of pollinators.…”