Make sure even low doses of insecticides can halve the life of bees

A new study by Brazilian biologists suggests that the effect of pesticides on bees could be worse than expected: even when they are used at a level considered non-lethal, poison reduces the lives of bees up to 50 percent.

The result of the report carried out between 2014 and 2017 and published in Scientific reports identify active ingredients of 44 products used to spray bees that could be badociated with insect mortality in the cultures studied in the state of San Pablo.

Several species of bees are in danger of extinction worldwide, a phenomenon observed since 2000 in Europe and the United States and at least since 2005 in Brazil. For example, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the loss was reported from about 5000 colonies, about 400 million bees.

The researchers gathered material in 40 municipalities across the state. In collaboration with beekeepers, farmers and the agrochemical industry, they developed a set of recommended actions for: protect the apiaries and to apply the best practices in agriculture, as well as the minimum safety margin for the application of agrochemicals already mentioned.

"We are starting to perform tests to measure the effects of the combined exposure to insecticide and fungicide on bees and we have found that a poison of this type does not harm colonies in the past." Bees when it is sprayed alone, but that it becomes toxic to bees.when it is badociated with some insecticide, it does not kill them as does the insecticide, but he changes his behavior and puts the colonies at risk"How did he DPA, the principal researcher of the project, Elaine Cristina Mathias da Silva Zacarin.

The active ingredients studied were clothianidin, an insecticide used to control cotton pests, dry beans, corn and soybeans, and pyraclostrobin, a fungicide applied to the leaves of most grain crops. and fruits, as well as vegetables and vegetables.