EVALUATES THE POSSIBLE RISK OF POLLEN GRAINS CONTAMINATION BY PESTICIDE RESIDUES AND THEIR AFFECTS ON HONEY BEE SURVIVAL

Abstract

Some studies have suggested that extensive use of insecticides might be a factor in the increased rates of honey bee colonies loss during the dormant period. There for we conducted this study in five villages in Sharkia governorate, Egypt during 2017. The obtained results revealed that the remarkable differences in residue levels between sites depending on the agricultural intensity were found. We found different pesticides in all observation sites. We found many samples under any detectable contamination and the few positive samples only with low concentrations of pesticides. Thiamethoxam at El-Nakhas and Ezbet Issa and imidacloprid at Plant protection Institute, Belbeis and El-Mahmodia record a higher PHQ more than 1000 corresponds to consuming more than 1% of the median lethal dose (LD50) per day and therefore represent the toxicity of substances to honey. Conclusively, from these results it could be concluded that risks by ingestion of contaminated pollen and honey are of some concern for systemic insecticides, particularly imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, chlorpyrifos and the mixtures of cyhalothrin and ergosterol inhibiting fungicides. However, residues of neonicotinoid insecticides pose the highest risk by contact exposure of bees with contaminated pollen.