PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Common crop pesticides kill honeybee larvae in the hive

2014-01-27
(Press-News.org) Contact information: Sara LaJeunesse
SDL13@psu.edu
814-863-4325
Penn State
Common crop pesticides kill honeybee larvae in the hive

Four pesticides commonly used on crops to kill insects and fungi also kill honeybee larvae within their hives, according to Penn State and University of Florida researchers. The team also found that N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) -- an inert, or inactive, chemical commonly used as a pesticide additive -- is highly toxic to honeybee larvae.

"We found that four of the pesticides most commonly found in beehives kill bee larvae," said Jim Frazier, professor of entomology, Penn State. "We also found that the negative effects of these pesticides are sometimes greater when the pesticides occur in combinations within the hive. Since pesticide safety is judged almost entirely on adult honeybee sensitivity to individual pesticides and also does not consider mixtures of pesticides, the risk assessment process that the Environmental Protection Agency uses should be changed."

According to Frazier, the team's previous research demonstrated that forager bees bring back to the hive an average of six different pesticides on the pollen they collect. Nurse bees use this pollen to make beebread, which they then feed to honeybee larvae. To examine the effects of four common pesticides -- fluvalinate, coumaphos, chlorothalonil and chlorpyrifos -- on bee larvae, the researchers reared honeybee larvae in their laboratory. They then applied the pesticides alone and in all combinations to the beebread to determine whether these insecticides and fungicides act alone or in concert to create a toxic environment for honeybee growth and development.

The researchers also investigated the effects of NMP on honeybee larvae by adding seven concentrations of the chemical to a pollen-derived, royal jelly diet. NMP is used to dissolve pesticides into formulations that then allow the active ingredients to spread and penetrate the plant or animal surfaces onto which they are applied. The team fed their treated diet, containing various types and concentrations of chemicals, to the laboratory-raised bee larvae.

The team's results are reported in the current issue of PLoS ONE.

"We found that mixtures of pesticides can have greater consequences for larval toxicity than one would expect from individual pesticides," Frazier said.

Among the four pesticides, honeybee larvae were most sensitive to chlorothalonil. They also were negatively affected by a mixture of chlorothalonil with fluvalinate. In addition, the larvae were sensitive to the combination of chlorothalonil with the miticide coumaphos. In contrast, the addition of coumaphos significantly reduced the toxicity of the fluvalinate and chlorothalonil mixture. According to Chris Mullin, professor of entomology, Penn State, these pesticides may directly poison honeybee larvae or they may indirectly kill them by disrupting the beneficial fungi that are essential for nurse bees to process pollen into beebread.

"Chronic exposure to pesticides during the early life stage of honeybees may contribute to their inadequate nutrition or direct poisoning with a resulting impact on the survival and development of the entire bee brood," he said. The researchers note that fluvalinate and coumaphos are commonly used by beekeepers on crops to control Varroa mites, and are found to persist within beehives for about five years. Chlorothalonil is a broad-spectrum agricultural fungicide that is often applied to crops in bloom when honeybees are present for pollination because it is currently deemed safe to bees. Chlorpyrifos is a widely used organophosphate in crop management.

"Our findings suggest that the common pesticides chlorothalonil, fluvalinate, coumaphos and chloropyrifos, individually or in mixtures, have statistically significant impacts on honeybee larval survivorship," Mullin said. "This is the first study to report serious toxic effects on developing honeybee larvae of dietary pesticides at concentrations that currently occur in hives." The team also found that increasing amounts of NMP corresponded to increased larval mortality, even at the lowest concentration tested.

"There is a growing body of research that has reported a wide range of adverse effects of inactive ingredients to human health, including enhancing pesticide toxicities across the nervous, cardiovascular, respiratory and hormone systems," Mullin said. "The bulk of synthetic organic chemicals used and released into U.S. environments are formulation ingredients like NMP, which are generally recognized as safe. They have no mandated limits on their use and their residues remain unmonitored.

"Multi-billion pounds of these inactive ingredients overwhelm the total chemical burden from the active pesticide, drug and personal-care ingredients with which they are formulated. Among these co-formulants are surfactants and solvents of known high toxicity to fish, amphibians, honey bees and other non-target organisms. While we have found that NMP contributes to honeybee larvae mortality, the overall role of these inactive ingredients in pollinator decline remains to be determined."



INFORMATION:

Other authors on the paper include Wanyi Zhu, graduate research assistant in entomology, Penn State, and Daniel Schmehl, postdoctoral associate in entomology and nematology, University of Florida.

The National Honey Board, the U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture-Agriculture and Food Research Initiative-Coordinated Agricultural Projects and the Foundational Award programs funded this research.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Do brain connections help shape religious beliefs?

2014-01-27
New Rochelle, NY, January 27, 2014—Building on previous evidence showing that religious belief involves cognitive activity that can be mapped to specific brain regions, a new study has ...

NIH grantees develop way to make old antibiotic work against TB

2014-01-27
WHAT: Scientists supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the ...

Put a plastic bag in your tank

2014-01-27
Researchers in India have developed a relatively low-temperature process to convert certain kinds of plastic waste into liquid fuel as a way to re-use discarded plastic bags and other products. They ...

Researchers find changes to protein SirT1

2014-01-27
Researchers find changes to protein SirT1 can prevent excess metabolic stress associated with obesity, diabetes and aging. Studies ...

Severity of spatial neglect after stroke predicts long-term mobility recovery in community

2014-01-27
West Orange, NJ. ...

Expanding our view of vision

2014-01-27
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Every time you open your eyes, visual information flows into your brain, which interprets what you're seeing. Now, for the first time, MIT neuroscientists have noninvasively mapped this flow of information ...

Nipping diabetes in the blood

2014-01-27
An estimated 25.8 million Americans have diabetes. Another 79 million are thought to have "prediabetes," meaning they are at ...

Quality of white matter in the brain is crucial for adding and multiplying

2014-01-27
A new study led by Professor Bert De Smedt (Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven) ...

A natural sugar delivers DNA aptamer drug inside tumor cells

2014-01-27
New Rochelle, NY, January 27, 2014—Drugs comprised of single strands of DNA, called aptamers, can bind to targets inside tumor cells causing cell death. But these DNA ...

Solving a 30-year-old problem in massive star formation

2014-01-27
An international group of astrophysicists has found evidence strongly supporting a solution to a long-standing puzzle about the birth of some of the most massive stars in the universe. Young massive ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Dementia takes 3.5 years to diagnose after symptoms begin

Robotic space rovers keep getting stuck. UW engineers have figured out why

New research shows how immigration status can become a death sentence during public health crisis

University of Toronto Engineering researchers develop safer alternative non-stick coating

Good vibrations: Scientists use imaging technology to visualize heat

More ecological diversity means better nutritional resources in Fiji’s agroforests

New global study shows freshwater is disappearing at alarming rates

Scientists create an artificial cell capable of navigating its environment using chemistry alone

A little salt is good for battery health

Deep-sea fish confirmed as a significant source of ocean carbonate

How to keep kids with eating disorders home after hospital stay? Therapy

Sex differences affect efficacy of opioid overdose treatment

Aligning AI with Human Values and Well-Being

Engineering the next generation of experimental physics

The scuba diving industry is funding marine ecosystem conservation and employing locals

BATMAN brings TCR therapy out of the shadows

Surrogates more likely to be diagnosed with mental illness, study finds

Columbia Engineering researchers turn dairy byproduct into tissue repair gel

Global estimates of lives and life-years saved by COVID-19 vaccination during 2020-2024

Potential trade-offs of proposed cuts to the NIH

New research simulates cancer cell behavior

COVID, over 2.5 million deaths prevented worldwide thanks to vaccines. One life saved for every 5,400 doses administered

Scuba diving generates up to $20 billion annually

Scientists advance efforts to create ‘virtual cell lab’ as testing ground for future research with live cells

How DNA packaging controls the “genome’s guardian”

Simplified models, deeper insights: Coarse-grained models unlock new potential for ionic liquid simulations

Gorillas’ personal circumstances shape their aggression towards groupmates

Which signalling pathways in the cell lead to possible therapies for Parkinson's disease

Identifying landslide threats using hydrological predictors

First graders who use more educational media spend more time reading

[Press-News.org] Common crop pesticides kill honeybee larvae in the hive