We did a contract study some years ago for an onion seed producer who found bees completely ignoring and over-flying his fields - wouldn't land on the onion umbels - no pollination.  He blamed a new pesticide.  We did some PERS assays, found that the bees didn't much like the new chemical.  They also had a negative response to several other chemicals in the tank mix.  Bottom line, our conclusion was that in this case, it wasn't the new chemical that repelled the bees, it was the additional of one too many somewhat repellent chemicals to the tank mix.
We did the work in the grower's office conference room.  One day I heard his CA certified pesticide application adviser telling him what to add to the mix that was going to be applied by helicopter at night.  It was clear that under the guise of being the 'certified' expert, the adviser was recommending mixes with no knowledge at all about the chemistry of the mix nor of effects on bees.  Blind leading the blind.
We also found that we couldn't get a sample of the mix to test, even from the grower who hired us.
Jerry



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