Table 2 Percent of samples with active ingredient detections above the EPA (0.4) and EFSA (0.2) acute risk thresholds. For a chronic risk threshold (oral toxicity only), the EFSA uses 0.03.

From: Pesticide risk to managed bees during blueberry pollination is primarily driven by off-farm exposures

 

Material

Year

Active ingredient, pesticide type (I = insecticide)

% of samples above EPA acute threshold (%)

% of samples above EFSA acute threshold (%)

% of samples above EFSA chronic threshold (oral tox. only) (%)

Highest conc. detected (ppb)

LD50 (ug per bee)

Prop. of LD50 for highest detection

Contact

Honey bee pollen, n = 97

2019

chlorpyrifos, I

0

4.1

 

213.5

0.059

0.36

avermectin B1a, I

0

1.0

7.2

0.002

0.36

Oral

Honey bee pollen, n = 76

2018

clothianidin, I

1.3

3.9

31.6

27.3

0.004

0.68

imidacloprid, I

0

1.3

26.3

8.7

0.0037

0.24

thiamethoxam, I

0

0

5.3

4.2

0.005

0.08

Honey bee pollen, n = 97

2019

clothianidin, I

2.1

2.1

22.7

35.7

0.004

0.89

thiamethoxam, I

0

1.0

4.1

14.7

0.005

0.30

imidacloprid, I

0

0

4.1

2.0

0.004

0.05

chlorpyrifos, I

0

0

5.2

213.5

0.25

0.09

avermectin B1a, I

0

0

1.0

7.18

0.009

0.08

carbaryl, I

0

0

1.0

93.2

0.21

0.04

Bumble bee pollen, n = 15

2019

clothianidin, I

0

0

46.7

3.2

0.004*

0.08

chlorpyrifos, I

0

0

6.7

272.7

0.23

0.12

  1. Both contact and oral LD50 values were used to calculate risk and are presented separately. N is the number of samples. Sample types without detections above thresholds are excluded. Asterisks (*) marks where honey bee toxicity data was used for bumble bee collected pollen.
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