The impact of the mosquito adulticide naled on honey bees Apis mellifera L was evaluated by exposing beehives to nighttime aerial ULV applications of this insecticide using a high-pressure nozzle system. The tests were conducted during routine mosquito control missions at Manatee County, Florida, in the summer of 2000. Two treatment sites were sprayed a total of four times over a 10-week period. Honey bees, which clustered outside of the hive entrances, were subjected to naled exposure during the mosquito spraying. The highest average naled deposition was 2,688.4 ± 63.4 mg/m2 at the Port Manatee site, which resulted in statistically significant bee mortality (117 ± 19.9). At the Terra Ceia Road site, an intermediate level of naled deposition was found (1,434.9 ± 2.3 mg/m2). For this spray mission, the range of dead bees per hive was 1 to 9 prior to spraying and 4 to 36 within 24 hours after naled application. Means of all other naled ground depositions were less than 850 mg/m2. We concluded that substantial bee mortality (>100 dead bees) resulted when naled residue levels were > 2,000 mg/m2 and honey bees were clustered outside of the hive entrances during mosquito adulticide applications. Compared to the flat-fan nozzle systems currently used by most of Florida’s mosquito control programs, the high-pressure nozzle system used in this experiment substantially reduced environmental contamination and lead to decreased bee mortality. Statistical analysis also showed that average honey yield at the end of the season was not significantly reduced.
Species 1: Hymenoptera Apidae Apis mellifera (Honey Bee)
Keywords: aerial ULV, naled
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