Kim, in what ways do you consider this data "telling"?
http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/ers/SweetCorn/TABLE92.xls

My interpretation is as follows:

Example: ILLINOIS:  Chart shows 7,000 acres (11 square miles)
of sweet corn were planted.  4,800 of these acres (69%) were
treated with 2,600 lbs of insecticide =  ~1/2 pound per acre = a
only a handful amount per year and most likely mainly granular
insecticide for corn rootworm control (granules couldn't harm
pollinating insects).

The chart also shows practically no fungicide was used, but
but considerable herbicide was applied.  But corn herbicides are
applied only once or twice a year either pre-plant or when the
plants are small, hence adult pollinating insects are not actively
foraging the fields and exposed to the spray (although some
caterpillars feeding on the treated weeds could end up dying
of starvation as the weeds wither).

I find nectar flowers and nectar feeding insects and pollinators
are reliably common along the margins of corn fields in the
upper Midwest:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/syr3.jpg
Close up:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/syr2.jpg
Sometimes explosively abundant:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/iowac.jpg
(these butterflies breed in the State of Iowa, they
are not merely migrants passing through).

Paul Cherubini
El Dorado, Calif.

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