scholarly journals Acttra SWD Bait Formulation Against Drosophila Suzukii and its Compatibility with Berry Pollination by the Honey Bee, Apis Mellifera

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-290
Author(s):  
Ricardo Alberto Toledo-Hernández ◽  
Mónica Pulido-Enríquez ◽  
Francisco Landeros-Pedro ◽  
Douglas Rodríguez ◽  
Daniel Sánchez

Abstract Crop protection substances are continuously developed to prevent the decimation of non-target insect populations through insecticide use. The bait formulation Acttra SWD was created to attract the adult spotted-wing drosophila, a generalist pest of berries, and when mixed with insecticide would cause a reduction in the volume of insecticide applied, thus avoiding a complete coverage of crops and resulting in economic and ecological benefits to society. However, Acttra SWD has some compounds, including sugars and fruit odors, that might attract non-target fauna, especially insect pollinators. Therefore this study aimed (1) to investigate if Acttra SWD mixed with the recommended pesticide, i.e. spinosad (Entrust), is attractive to the honey bee, which is extensively used for berry pollination and (2) to evaluate the insecticidal activity of Acttra/Entrust in oral and contact tests on the same species. In all replicates, most foragers rejected feeders that offered Acttra/Entrust, and some switched to Acttra/Entrust-free feeders. Accordingly, mortality caused by this mixture in oral tests was low and did not differ from control, since the majority of bees did not consume the Acttra/Entrust treatment. However, mortality caused by this mixture was higher than in control groups in topical tests. Our results indicate that honey bees will not be attracted to and poisoned by crops sprayed with Acttra/Entrust, but contact with the bait would result in lethal or sub-lethal effects.

Insects ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andika ◽  
Vandervoort ◽  
Wise

Tart cherry production is challenged by precipitation events that may reduce crop protection against spotted-wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) (SWD). Due to SWD’s devastating impacts on yield, growers are often faced with the option of insecticide reapplication. Semi-field bioassays were used to assess simulated rainfall effects towards adult mortality, immature survival, and residue wash-off from different plant tissues for several compounds. Tart cherry shoots were treated with 0, 12.7 or 25.4 mm of simulated rainfall and infested with SWD for 5 days. Adult mortality was recorded 1, 3, and 5 days after shoots were infested, while immature stage individuals were counted 9 days after the first infestation day. All insecticides demonstrated higher adult mortality and lower immature survival compared with the untreated control at 0 mm of rainfall. Adult mortality and immature survival caused by phosmet, zeta-cypermethrin, and spinetoram were adversely affected by simulated rainfall. In all bioassays, acetamiprid was the least affected by simulated rainfall. Residue analysis demonstrated phosmet and spinetoram residues to be the most sensitive to wash-off. This study demonstrates different rainfall effects on SWD control for several compounds. This information may provide a basis for making an informed decision on whether reapplication is required.


2019 ◽  
Vol 85 (21) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason A. Rothman ◽  
Laura Leger ◽  
Jay S. Kirkwood ◽  
Quinn S. McFrederick

ABSTRACT Honey bees are important insect pollinators used heavily in agriculture and can be found in diverse environments. Bees may encounter toxicants such as cadmium and selenate by foraging on plants growing in contaminated areas, which can result in negative health effects. Honey bees are known to have a simple and consistent microbiome that conveys many benefits to the host, and toxicant exposure may impact this symbiotic microbial community. We used 16S rRNA gene sequencing to assay the effects that sublethal cadmium and selenate treatments had over 7 days and found that both treatments significantly but subtly altered the composition of the bee microbiome. Next, we exposed bees to cadmium and selenate and then used untargeted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) metabolomics to show that chemical exposure changed the bees’ metabolite profiles and that compounds which may be involved in detoxification, proteolysis, and lipolysis were more abundant in treatments. Finally, we exposed several strains of bee-associated bacteria in liquid culture and found that each strain removed cadmium from its medium but that only Lactobacillus Firm-5 microbes assimilated selenate, indicating the possibility that these microbes may reduce the metal and metalloid burden on their host. Overall, our report shows that metal and metalloid exposure can affect the honey bee microbiome and metabolome and that strains of bee-associated bacteria can bioaccumulate these toxicants. IMPORTANCE Bees are important insect pollinators that may encounter environmental pollution when foraging upon plants grown in contaminated areas. Despite the pervasiveness of pollution, little is known about the effects of these toxicants on honey bee metabolism and their symbiotic microbiomes. Here, we investigated the impact of selenate and cadmium exposure on the gut microbiome and metabolome of honey bees. We found that exposure to these chemicals subtly altered the overall composition of the bees’ microbiome and metabolome and that exposure to toxicants may negatively impact both host and microbe. As the microbiome of animals can reduce mortality upon metal or metalloid challenge, we grew bee-associated bacteria in media spiked with selenate or cadmium. We show that some bacteria can remove these toxicants from their media in vitro and suggest that bacteria may reduce metal burden in their hosts.


Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 603
Author(s):  
Juyeong Kim ◽  
Kyongmi Chon ◽  
Bo-Seon Kim ◽  
Jin-A Oh ◽  
Chang-Young Yoon ◽  
...  

Rearing honey bee larvae in vitro is an ideal method to study honey bee larval diseases or the toxicity of pesticides on honey bee larvae under standardized conditions. However, recent studies reported that a horizontal position may cause the deformation of emerged bees. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the emergence and deformation rates of honey bee (Apis mellifera ligustica) larvae reared in horizontal and vertical positions. The study was conducted under the same laboratory conditions with three experimental groups, non-capped or capped horizontal plates and capped vertical plates. However, our results demonstrated that the exhibited adult deformation rates of the horizontal plates were significantly higher (27.8% and 26.1%) than those of the vertical plates (11.9%). In particular, the most common symptoms were deformed wings and an abnormal abdomen in the horizontal plates. Additionally, adults reared on horizontal plates were substantially smaller (10.88 and 10.82 mm) than those on vertical plates (11.55 mm). Considering these conclusions, we suggest that a vertical rearing method is more suitable when considering the deformation rates of the control groups to verify the sublethal effects of pesticides on honey bees.


Viruses ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1229
Author(s):  
Laura E. Brettell ◽  
Declan C. Schroeder ◽  
Stephen J. Martin

The global spread of a parasitic mite (Varroa destructor) has resulted in Deformed wing virus (DWV), a previously rare pathogen, now dominating the viromes in honey bees and contributing to large-scale honey bee colony losses. DWV can be found in diverse insect taxa and has been implicated in spilling over from honey bees into associated (“apiary”) and other (“non-apiary”) insects. Here we generated next generation sequence data from 127 insect samples belonging to diverse taxa collected from Hawaiian islands with and without Varroa to identify whether the mite has indirectly affected the viral landscapes of key insect taxa across bees, wasps, flies and ants. Our data showed that, while Varroa was associated with a dramatic increase in abundance of (predominantly recombinant) DWV in honey bees (and no other honey bee-associated RNA virus), this change was not seen in any other taxa sampled. Honey bees share their environment with other insect populations and exist as a homogenous group, frequently sharing common viruses, albeit at low levels. Our data suggest that the threat of Varroa to increase viral load in an apiary does not automatically translate to an increase in virus load in other insects living in the wider community.


HortScience ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 866A-866
Author(s):  
S. Alan Walters* ◽  
Bradley H. Taylor

Most small pumpkin growers in Illinois have traditionally relied upon natural insect pollinators to achieve fruit set and development. Many growers fail to understand the importance of pollination and are not aware of the potential benefits of using honey bee colonies to improve pollination and subsequent fruit set of pumpkin. Therefore, a study was conducted over the 2000 and 2001 growing seasons to measure the effectiveness of honey bee colonies on jack-o-lantern pumpkin production. Yields (kg·ha-1) of several cultivars (e.g., `Appalachian' and `Howden') almost doubled when honey bee colonies were present during flowering. Pumpkin weights with the inclusion of honey bees averaged 31,547 kg·ha-1 compared to 22,353 kg·ha-1 for those without honey bees. However, the number of pumpkins per ha was not as drastically influenced by the addition of honey bees; total pumpkin fruits per ha averaged 1,896 with honey bees as compared to 1,704 without honey bees. These results indicate that there were sufficient natural pollinators to induce pumpkin fruit set under field conditions during the study, but fruit size can be significantly increased with the addition of a strong honey bee colony during flowering. Since pumpkins are generally sold on a weight basis, growers should realize greater revenues with the inclusion of honey bee colonies in pumpkin fields.


Author(s):  
MS Hossain ◽  
MM Rahman ◽  
ME Hossain ◽  
S Sarkar ◽  
K Rahman

The study was conducted at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University campus to document the diversity and abundance of pollinators of five commonly grown winter crops, viz., mustard, coriander, niger, black cumin and linseed from October 2020 to February 2021. A total number of fifteen species was identified under eleven genera, nine subfamilies, nine families and seven super families. The study revealed that honey bees, halictids, nymphalids, coccinellids, butterflies and dipterans of genera Apis, Halictus, Lasioglossum, Aglais, Coccinella, Pieris, Eurema, Musca, Syrphid and Calliphora belonging to the families Apidae, Halictidae, Nymphalidae, Coccinellidae, Pieridae, Muscidae, Syrphidae and Calliphoridae, respectively were present in the field. The species diversity was high in mustard with 15 species while it was low in linseed (5 species). The honey bees, Apis sp. and sweat bees, Halictus sp. were common pollinators of all five oilseed crops, while the housefly, Musca domestica was specific to mustard. The honey bee, Apis sp. was predominant among all the insect pollinators in five oilseed crops. The Species Richness (SR), Shannon-Weaver index (H’), Community dominance and Question of similarity indices were applied to determine the diversity and abundance of pollinators. J. Biodivers. Conserv. Bioresour. Manag. 2021, 7(1): 33-42


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