Hello All

Kevin Gibbs asked what the application rate was of adjuvants tested on
honey bees. For topical tests, 1 microlitre was applied to the thorax of
each bee, and for oral tests, 200 mls were dispersed in 3 mls of 50/50
sugar/water vol/vol/ and 6 ml of this was supplied per feeding tube for
each group of 10 bees, and the volume consumed was noted.

Of course the big unanswered question is how these quantities may
relate to amounts that foraging bees may encounter in the field. While
it is probably quite unlikely that bees would feed upon droplets that
might accumulate on crops, possibly a bee flying through a mist of fine
droplets as a spray was being applied, may accumulate quite a number?
But then fine droplets might be held up on the hairs of a bee and so may
not reach the cuticle. So as I said previously although the laboratory
tests showed that under the test conditions the materials were not
harmful to bees, we don't know how this relates to field conditions.
What can be said is that at higher concentrations and volumes than a bee
might reasonably be expected to  encounter in the field, assuming label
directions are followed, the adjuvants were non-toxic to bees.
I hope this helps.

Regards,
Barry Donovan
New Zealand.



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