Pesticide toxicity to bees: Encyclopedia II - Pesticide toxicity to bees - Highly Toxic Pesticides to Bees

Pesticide toxicity to bees - Highly Toxic Pesticides to Bees

Listed by brand name, generic name and length of residual toxicity. Note that the brand names listed here are by no means complete.

Pesticide toxicity to bees - Carbamates

• Baygon (propoxur)
• Furadan (carbofuran) ⇒ 7 - 14 days
• Lannate (methomyl)
  • Lannate LS ⇒ 2 hours +
• Mesurol (methiocarb)
• Nudrin (methomy)

Pesticide toxicity to bees - Organophosphates

• Afugan (pyrazophos)
• Azodrin (monocrotophos)
• Baytex (fenthion)
• Bidrin (dicrotophos)
• Cygon (dimethoate) ⇒ 3 days banned in the US
• Cythion (malathion)
• Dasanit (fensulfothion)
• DDVP (dichlorvos)
• De-Fend (dimethoate)
• Dibrom (naled) ⇒ 16 hours
• Dursban (chlorpyrifos) banned in the US for home and garden use
• Dyfonate EC (fonofos) ⇒ 3 hours
• Gardona (tetrachlorvinphos)
• Guthion (azinphos-methyl) ⇒ 2.5 days
• Imidan phosmet
• Lorsban (chlorpyrifos ^[1]) banned in the US for home and garden use ⇒ 4 - 6 days
• malathion
  • Malathion USB >8 fl oz/acre (58 L/km²) ⇒ 5.5 days
  • Malathion EC ⇒ 2-6 hours
• Metasystox-R (oxydemetonmethy) ⇒ <2 hours
• Methyl-Guthion (azinphos-methyl)
• Monitor (methamidophos)
• parathion Penncap-M (methyl parathion) ⇒ 5-8 days. By far the most potentially damaging pesticides for honey bees are those packaged in tiny capsules (microencapsulated). Microencapsulated methyl parathion (PennCap M®), for example, is a liquid formulation containing capsules approximately the size of pollen grains which contain the active ingredient. When bees are out in the field, these capsules can become attached electrostatically to the pollen-collecting hairs of the insects and at times are collected by design. When stored in pollen, the slow-release feature of the capsules allows the methyl parathion to be a potential killer for several months. At the present time, there is no way to detect whether bees are indeed poisoned by micro-encapsulated methyl parathion, so a beekeeper potentially could lose replacement bees for those already poisoned by the pesticide. It is, therefore, strongly recommended that this formulation be used only when honey bee exposure is not a possibility.
• Sevin (carbaryl) ⇒ 3 - 7 days
  • Sevin XLR (carbaryl) ⇒ 8 hours @ 1.5 lb/acre (168 kg/km²) or less. Bees poisoned with carbaryl can take 2-3 days to die and appear inactive as if cold. It allows them time to take contaminated nectar and pollen back to the colony. Some crops treated with Sevin® under the wrong conditions (i.e., in bloom using a dust formulation with large numbers of bees in the field) have been responsible for disastrous kills. Sevin® is one of the US most widely used insecticides for a wide variety of insect pests. It is also one of the most toxic to honey bees in certain formulations. There are formulations, however, which are determined to be less toxic (see tables). Usually, applicator-beekeeper communication can effectively be used to adequately protect bees from Sevin® poisoning.
• Spectracide (diazinon)
• Sumithion (fenitrothion)
• Supracide (methidathion)
• Tameron (methamidophos)
• Thimet EC (phorate) ⇒ 5 hours
• Vapona (dichlorvos)

Pesticide toxicity to bees - Synthetic pyrethroids

• Ambush (permethrin) ⇒ 1 - 2 days, safened by repellency under arid conditions. Permethrin is also the active ingredient in insecticides used against the Small hive beetle, which is a parasite of the beehive in the temperate climate regions.
• Ammo (cypermethrin) ⇒ Less than 2 hours
• Asana (esfenvalerate) ⇒ 1 day, safened by repellency under arid conditions
• Pounce (permethrin) ⇒ 1 - 2 days, safened by repellency under arid conditions
• Pydrin (esfenvalerate) ⇒ 6 hours
• resmethrin

Pesticide toxicity to bees - Chlorinated cyclodienes

• DMDT, Marlate (methoxychlor) ⇒ 2 hours
• Thiodan (endosulfan) ⇒ 8 hours

Pesticide toxicity to bees - Chloronicotines

• Gaucho (imidacloprid) "mad bee disease"

Pesticide toxicity to bees - Herbicides

• Weed-B-Gone (2,4-D) herbicide

Pesticide toxicity to bees - Others

• Dimecron (phosphamidon)
• Famophos (famphur)
• Phosdrin (mevinphos)
• phosphamidon (Dimecron)
• Systox (demeton) ⇒ <2 hours
• tepp most toxic to bees LD₅₀ 0.001 micrograms per bee but short residual activity*Zectran (mexacarbate) formula

Source:Protecting Bees When Using Insecticides University of Nebraska Lincoln, Extension, May 1998

Pesticide toxicity to bees - Highly toxic and banned in the US

• Aldrin banned by US EPA in 1974
• carbofuran (banned in granular form)
• dieldrin banned by US EPA in 1974
• heptachlor
• lindane, BHC (banned in California)

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Highly Toxic Pesticides to Bees", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki