Meeting Abstract
Pesticides are widely used for pest management in agricultural areas that support diverse arthropod communities. Recent research suggests that some arthropods, dipterans, display pesticide avoidance under natural conditions. We studied responses to pesticides by bees and flies in a Mediterranean plant community. We used pan traps and four pesticides commonly used in agriculture surrounding the Sea of Marmara region of Turkey to test for three behavioral responses (attraction, aversion, and neutrality) by arthropods. The pan trap experiment design sampled arthropods on four pesticides matched with controls in three pan trap colors (yellow, blue, and white). We used the standard high application rate of commercial pesticides in pan traps: 0.6 ml/L thiacloprid; 0.4 ml/L imidacloprid; 0.75 ml/L deltamethrin; 0.3 g/L acetamiprid. Arthropods were non-randomly distributed (P<0.05) among pan traps, showing a range of responses to color and pesticides. We compared responses to pesticides by bees and flies. Bees appeared randomly (P=0.160-0.849) distributed among four pesticide and control treatments. Flies appeared less (P= 0.001-0.026) often in pesticide than control treatments, which we interpreted as pesticide avoidance. Our study replicates pesticide avoidance by flies seen in another study and reveals that bees are neutral toward pesticides under natural conditions. Since bees do not avoid pesticides under natural condition, they are potentially more vulnerable to pesticide exposure than flies that have been studied for this effect.
