Insecticides

Damselfly populations are being harmed by insecticides as researchers find the wildlife scourge of neonicotinoids continues to grow. Some chemicals in this group have already been banned by the EU but thiacloprid is still in widespread use. Similar chemicals in the neonicotinoid family have already been tied to severe decline in bee populations and now it appears the damage is more widespread.

Adolescents exposed to elevated levels of pesticides are at an increased risk of depression, according to a new study led by Jose R. Suarez-Lopez, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health at University of California San Diego School of Medicine. The study was published online (ahead of print) in June 2019 in the journal International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health.

Schon 20 Feldvogelarten, darunter Braunkehlchen, Rebhuhn, Kiebitz oder Uferschnepf, sind rund um Kassel nicht mehr zu sehen, da diese Arten bereits ausgestorben sind. „Und um den Neuntöter ist es auch schon schlecht bestellt, ebenso um die Feldlerche, den Vogel des Jahres 2019“, sagen Manfred Henkel und Martin Lange vom Nabu Kaufungen-Lohfelden. Im Landkreis sei ihr Bestand dramatisch gesunken. Die beiden Naturschützer läuten Alarm. Nachdem vor rund einem Jahr das Insektensterben in den Medien ein großes Thema war, sind es nun die Feldvögel.

Le chlorpyrifos, un insecticide toxique toujours autorisé dans l'Union européenne, est associé à des déficits de QI chez l'enfant, à des lésions cérébrales et à une augmentation de la fréquence de l'autisme chez les nouveaux-nés. Sciences et Avenir fait le point sur ce nouveau scandale sanitaire.

The Western honeybee, Apis mellifera, is the most important managed pollinator globally and has recently experienced unsustainably high colony losses. Synergistic interactions among stressors are believed to be primarily responsible. However, despite clear evidence of strong effect on honeybee longevity of widely-employed neonicotinoid insecticides and of the ubiquitous ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor, no data exist to show synergistic effects between these two stressors.

We assessed the community-level effects of clothianidin-treated seed on the diversity and abundance of arthropod communities in a no-till corn agroecosystem over a single growing season.Epigeal and foliage-dwelling communities were disturbed by the clothianidin seed treatment, with significant negative and positive changes in taxa abundances. Clothianidin reduced the abundance of minute pirate bugs by 66.2%, lady beetles by 44.7%, ants by 43.4%, ground beetle adults and larvae by 31.7%, and rove beetles by 44.1% during the early corn growth stages.