Progress 06/01/15 to 05/31/18
Outputs
Target Audience:We had four target audiences: 1) tree fruit growers in Michigan, 2) commercial beekeepers, 3) MSU Extension Educators and consultants that advise tree fruit growers oe beekeepers, and 3) colleagues that work in the area of pollination and pollinator health. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project was the basis for a successfully defended Masters Thesis in the Department of Entomology at Michigan State University. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?A number of different extension talks and presentations have been made regarding the results of this work as detailed in the Products section of this report. In addition, our direct cooperators, the commercial tree fruit grower and the commercial beekeeper that allowed us access to their farms and hives respectively, were provided detailed project reports. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
IMPACT The purpose of this study was to quantify honey bee exposure to commonly used pesticides during orchard bloom in Michigan and relate these levels back to laboratory studies to evaluate the potential health effects for honey bees rented for orchard pollination. Local climate in the Eastern U.S. is ideal for growing apples and cherries, but it also comes with periods of rain and humidity conducive to fungal diseases. Fruit growers in this region must protect their orchards from disease using fungicides against key diseases that will infect trees during bloom, or risk significant fruit losses and early orchard decline. At the same time, they have come to depend on beekeepers for their pollination services. Recent laboratory studies have shown sublethal negative health effects in honey bee colonies when they are fed diets laced with certain fungicides. We found that some of the pesticides commonly used during orchard bloom, particularly the fungicides chlorothalonil and captan, were detectable in some samples from honey bee hives - mainly in pollen and in adult bees associated with pollen and nectar collection - at levels that previous lab studies have shown to be detrimental. Although we do not know whether these detections were enough to cause harm in the hives in our study, we have been using these results to make recommendations we hope will reduce exposure in hives located in or near areas of orchard production. Understanding how honey bees interact with orchard crops during bloom is important to develop best management practices that would protect the crop from disease, increase pollination, and improve conditions for honey bees providing these services. Further study is needed to follow hives over the course of a season of exposures to be able to measure potential sublethal effects on long term honey bee colony health. Project Objective Our main objective was to quantify field-level fungicide residues during bloom in honey bees, collected pollen, and in wax. We also identified the kinds of pollen honey bees collect during orchard bloom and have been using this information to develop and refine best management practices to better protect the health of the trees, and the bees providing pollination services. Data Collected We were able to quantify residue levels in honey bees (i.e. workers and larvae), fresh collected pollen, and stored hive products (i.e. wax, stored pollen) of pesticides commonly used in apple and cherry orchards during bloom, and relate these levels back to laboratory studies to evaluate the potential health effects for honey bees rented for orchard pollination. We screened for three different fungicides, an insecticide used just prior to bloom, and two herbicides - all of which could be screened using the same testing protocols. We also identified the sources (i.e. plant genera) of pollen collected by honey bees either next to orchards or in a bee yard so that we could relate this back to the residue testing. Samples were taken from hives placed adjacent to and within range of commercial orchards around bloom time or in a bee yard that was as far away from orchards as possible while staying in the same growing region. All the hives were owned and managed by a single commercial beekeeper. Discussion of Results We found in general that samples from hives in the bee yard had fewer detections and lower residue levels when detected than samples from hives placed next to orchards for pollination services. However, in one year, levels of the fungicide captan were as high in bee yard samples as they were in orchard hive samples. Captan is commonly used to protect newly emerging leaf tissue from apple scab infection, usually just prior to apple bloom - so we suspect that the residue may have been picked up in dandelion pollen collected from nearby orchards being treated for apple scab. In addition, residue levels and numbers of detections varied from year to year and appear to be correlated with whether a given year was predicted to have high or low disease pressure. For instance, in a rainy year, disease pressure was higher as were levels of detectible fungicide residues, whereas in a dryer year, disease risk was lower, and fungicide residues were either detected at lower levels or not at all. Growers in our region use disease forecasting models to base their management decisions, and this appears to have lowered the risk of exposure in years predicted to have lower disease pressure. What is concerning is that we were able to detect fungicide residues in some samples, in some years, especially during periods of predicted high disease pressure, that exceeded levels previously associated with negative health effects in honey bees fed on a diet laced with these active ingredients. Particularly, the residue levels found for chlorothalonil and captan have been shown, in controlled laboratory studies, to impact honey bee health by altering gut microbes important for processing and digesting food, decreasing their ability to handle toxins, increasing disease susceptibility, increasing larval mortality, and increasing whole colony mortality. When we looked at sources of pollen identified to genus, we found the main sources to be similar regardless of hive location. In the top ten plant genera were flowering trees, including those cultivated in orchards or as ornamentals (i.e. apple, cherry) or found in adjacent woodlands (i.e. willows, maples, beeches, oaks), and plants commonly found in the grassy drive rows in orchard floors (i.e. dandelion, wild mustard, clovers). What we were unable to determine is whether the residue levels we detected had any detrimental effects on the hives in our study or whether the variety of pollen sources had any potential to mitigate the exposure. Key Outcomes or Other Accomplishments Realized In reporting our results to growers, we have been using this information to recommend that growers mow or otherwise remove flowers from orchard floors prior to applying pesticides to reduce the chances that honey bees will pick up contaminated pollen. We are also encouraging growers to cultivate and protect flowering trees outside of their orchards as important sources of uncontaminated pollen. For beekeepers, we can say that orchards are an attractive pollen source for honey bees, even when hives appear to be in areas isolated from orchard operations - if they are within flight range, honey bees will find them. The struggle to balance pest management and pollinator health will continue. More research is needed on how to best coordinate the need to manage crop diseases with the need for pollination and how real world exposure relates to real world in-hive effects which are more difficult to measure.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Wilson, J.K. and J. Albert (Mar 2018) What can we learn by measuring field-level fungicide exposure in honey bees during orchard bloom? 2018 International IPM Symposium; Baltimore, MD
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Wilson, J.K. and R. Isaacs (Mar 2018) Risks and rewards: balancing the needs of pest control and pollinator protection in Michigan fruit crops. 2018 International IPM Symposium; Baltimore, MD
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Albert, J. and J. Wilson (Mar 2018) Field-level fungicide exposure to honey bees during orchard bloom in Michigan. 2018 International IPM Symposium; student poster session; Baltimore, MD
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Wilson, J. and J. Albert (January 2018) Screening Honey Bees for Fungicide Exposure During Orchard Bloom - Implications for Honey Bee Health and Disease Management. Orchard Pest & Disease Management Conference, Portland, OR
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Albert, J.L. (2018) Field-level fungicide exposure and repellency to honey bees (Apis mellifera) during orchard bloom in Michigan. Michigan State University, Entomology - Master of Science, ProQuest Number: 10812110.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Albert, J. and J. Wilson (November 2016) Field-level fungicide exposure and repellency to honey bees during orchard bloom in Michigan. Great Lakes Fruit Workers, Collingwood, Ontario
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Wilson, J.K. and J. Albert (April 2018) Pollinator Research Update: Best Practices for 2018. Fruit Ridge Annual Spring Spray Meeting, Sparta, MI (INVITED)
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Wilson, J.K. (March 2018) Pollination Concerns for Tree Fruit. Southwest Michigan Peach Meeting, Benton Harbor, MI (INVITED)
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Wilson, J.K. (February 2018) Best Management Practices for Pollinators in Orchards. 2018 Ontario Fruit & Vegetable Convention: Apples, Niagara Falls, Ontario (INVITED)
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Wilson, J.K. (February 2018) Minimizing risk to bees in fruit and vegetable crops. 2018 Ontario Fruit & Vegetable Convention: Promoting Pollinators on the Farm, Niagara Falls, Ontario (INVITED)
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Wilson, J. and J. Albert (January 2018) Balancing Orchard Disease Management with Pollinator Health. Northwest Orchard & Vineyard Show, Acme, MI
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Albert, J. and J. Wilson (December 2017) Field-level fungicide exposure to honey bees during orchard bloom in Michigan. Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable, and Farm Market EXPO, Grand Rapids, MI (poster)
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Wilson, J. and J. Albert (July 2016) Evaluating field-level fungicide exposure and repellency to honey bees during orchard bloom in Michigan. 2016 International Conference on Pollinator Biology, Health and Policy at Penn State University (poster)
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Progress 06/01/16 to 05/31/17
Outputs
Target Audience:We had three target audiences during this last reporting period: 1) tree fruit growers in Michigan, 2) MSU Extension Educators and consultants that advise tree fruit growers, and 3) colleagues that work in the area of pollination and pollinator health. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A masters-level graduate student has been working on this project and a related systematic literature review on the topic since March 2016. She is expected to graduate in May 2018. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results from this work were presented to grower, extension, and researcher audiences in either poster or talk formats at four different events. Collaborators and project partners also received a written report. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?A final season of field sampling is already completed and the samples are being prepared for pesticide residue analysis, which is expected to be completed by the end of November 2017. With all of the project results in hand, we will write them up and submit them for peer review in a research publication. We will write an article for the Fruit Quarterly, which is a research journal targeted at grower audiences in the Great Lakes region. We will summarize the results and their implications in the form of two factsheets made available for free online - one for tree fruit growers and one for the beekeepers that provide pollination services in orchards. When the factsheets are finished, two promotional articles will be written for the Michigan State University Extension News for Ag website targeting tree fruit growers and beekeeping audiences respectively.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
A second field season sampling commercially-managed honey bee hives was completed at two orchard dominated sites and one bee yard. Eight hives were sampled per site. During the 2016 season, hives were sampled for nurse bees, wax, and pollen at different time intervals around orchard bloom. Nurse bees were collected from brood frames; wax was collected from temporary frames inserted during bloom; pollen was collected via pollen traps. Samples were screened using QuEChERs method for the following commonly used orchard bloom-time pesticides: captan, chlorothalonil, thiophanate methyl, chlorpyrifos, pendimethalin and simazine.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Wilson, J. and J. Albert (July 2016) Evaluating field-level fungicide exposure and repellency to honey bees during orchard bloom in Michigan. 2016 International Conference on Pollinator Biology, Health and Policy at Penn State University (poster)
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Albert, J. and J. Wilson (November 2016) Field-level fungicide exposure and repellency to honey bees during orchard bloom in Michigan. Great Lakes Fruit Workers, Collingwood, Ontario (talk)
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Wilson, J. and J. Albert (January 2017) Practical Implications of Fungicides in Hives on Orchard Disease Management. Northwest Michigan Orchard & Vineyard Show, Acme, MI (INVITED talk)
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Albert, J. and J. Wilson (December 2016) Field-level fungicide exposure and repellency to honey bees during orchard bloom in Michigan. Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable, and Farm Market EXPO, Grand Rapids, MI (poster)
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Progress 06/01/15 to 05/31/16
Outputs
Target Audience:With a single season of data in hand, our target audience for sharing our results so far has been our grower and beekeeper collaborators in the form of a written report, project partners, and MSU Extension Educators involved in providing information and programs to help Michigan fruit growers. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A technician was hired to work on the project at the end of March. She will transition into a Masters program in Fall 2016 and this project will be a major part of her Master's research. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?A 3-page report was forwarded to the project partners and collaborators at the beginning of March 2016, with the caveat that the results are preliminary. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We have returned to the same grower's orchards and are working with the same beekeeper as last year. We have doubled the number of hives at the non-orchard site so that we have an even number of orchard vs. non-orchard hives. We set up pollen traps to collect pollen over a 4 day period during bloom at each site for residue testing and for identifying what proportion of the pollen the bees are collecting is from orchards and what other important sources of pollen may be during orchard bloom. We installed a drone frame in each hive to get a better sample of larvae and also wax drawn during the time period of interest. We have already taken the first worker bee pre-exposure sample and plan to go back this week to set the pollen traps. 2016 sampling will conclude sometime in June. Residue testing will take place after that. We plan to share whatever results we may have at that point at the 2016 International Conference on Pollinator Biology, Health and Policy at Penn State in July. Practical implications will be shared with grower and beekeeping audiences at a variety of regional meetings starting in the winter of 2016/17.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Eight commercially managed honey bee hives on two pallets per site were set up next to two tart cherry orchards and one non-orchard site. All hives were sampled three times for worker ("nurse") bees to measure baseline pesticide residue levels ("pre-exposure"), residue levels soon after exposure ("post-exposure"), and residue levels weeks after exposure after all hives had been relocated to the same non-orchard site ("persistence"). Larvae were sampled once as part of the pre-exposure sample. Worker bees were sampled from frames containing capped brood cells; approximately 10 grams of bees were scooped into a re-closeable bag. Larvae (mainly drones because they are larger) were removed from open cells from each hive to achieve the approximately 10 gram sample needed for the pesticide analysis. Samples were kept frozen until they could be processed for residue testing by the MSU Pesticide Analytical Lab. Each sample was screened for the following pesticides commonly used in cherry and/or apple orchards around bloom time: captan (fungicide), chlorothalonil (fungicide), thiophanate methyl (fungicide), chlorpyrifos (insecticide), pendimethalin (herbicide), and simazine (herbicide). We found that worker bees from hives next to orchards were more likely to pick up detectable levels of residue from the fungicide chlorothalonil than the hives at the beeyard, but we detected two pesticides (thiophanate methyl and chlorpyrifos) that are used in apple orchards in a couple of samples from hives in the non-orchard site.
Publications
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