Pesticides in Ferrara Province: two years' monitoring with honey bees (1987–1988)

Abstract

During the 1st year 20 strategic sites evenly distributed in this area, have been chosen. Each station consisted of two hives equipped with Gary cages to evaluate the weekly mortality. The data (presented as bee-risk maps) pointed out a situation of medium-high risk for honey bee and this was re-confirmed during the 2nd year of study with 26 stations. The most frequently detected active ingredients in these 2 years were: Dithiocarbamates (97% of 46 analyzed dead-bee samples) which are nonlethal to them, Azinphos-methyl (57%) and Dimethoate (55%) in 1987; and the same active ingredients, in the same order or importance but at different percentages (83.3%, 66.7% and 46.7% respectively) were detected on 30 dead-bee samples analyzed in 1988. These active ingredients are the most widely sold chemicals throughout the Ferrara Province.

KEY WORDS:

• pesticide
• honey bee
• environmental monitoring