PESTICIDE FORMULATION ADJUVANTS MAY IMPACT HONEY BEE HEALTH - Mullin C.A., T.J. Ciarlo, W. Zhu & J. Chen (USDA)

excerpts

> Modern pesticide formulations and seed treatments, particularly when multiple active ingredients are blended, require proprietary adjuvants and inert ingredients to achieve high efficacy for targeted pests. 

> Given the synergistic nature of certain chemicals, we are concerned that active ingredients may affect honey bees differently depending on the formulation ingredients in agrochemicals used around apiaries or where bees forage. 

> Organosiloxane surfactants have super-penetrant and super-spreading activities compared to all other classes of surfactants and greatly increase pesticide efficacy, and thus expectedly are more ecotoxic. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of organosilicone surfactants are used every year on almonds in California alone.

> The impact of pesticidal blends on bees, which depend on plant nectars and pollens readily contaminated by toxicants, cannot be fully understood without identification and risk assessment of inert residues and their agrochemical interactions.

presented at 2012 American Bee Research Conference February 7-8, 2012 at APHIS Headquarters in Greenbelt, MD

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