Fertility of bees reached by neonicotinoid pesticides

According to work done in the field, exposure to imidaclopide at the larval stage amputates the subsequent reproduction rate.

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The rapid collapse of insect populations, including pollinators, is one of the most disturbing manifestations of the current biodiversity crisis. The use of agricultural pesticides has the major causes of this insect armage, but their role is undoubtedly very underestimated.

This is what works led by ecologist Clara Stuslumpross and the entomologist Neal Williams (University of California in Davis) and Posted on November 30 in the magazine Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). According to the conclusions of the two American researchers, a current agricultural insecticide could have deferred deleterious effects, to the point of amputating about 20% the reproduction rate of bees having been exposed only through their Genitors.

“Results of a great range”, estimates the entomologist and agronomist Hervé JACTEL, researcher at the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE), which is not has not participated in this work. “This indicates that bees may need several generations to recover from one exhibition to pesticides, write the authors. Thus, the” Deferred Effects “must be taken into account in the risk assessments [of these products] and conservation policies. “

” Additive effects “

“These results are important because, too often, the experimental works on bees wear on a single season of exhibition and do not go beyond, estimates the Francisco Sanchez-Bayo biologist (University of Sydney), author Many work on the impact of neonicotinoids on biodiversity. The fact that the reproductive rate decreases long after exposure is disturbing, as it means that there are hidden effects that persist of the larval stage in adulthood. “

The researchers led their experience over two years, under the closest conditions of situations encountered in the fields. They exposed solitary bees (Osmia lignaria) at levels commonly encountered in the plots treated with a neonicotinoid insecticide, imidacloprid (re-authorized in 2020 in France for the cultivation of beets), while other bees were not exposed. They then gathered the offspring of these two groups and randomly placed their offspring, either in a virgin environment of the insecticide or a treated environment.

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/Media reports.