Translocation of Common Almond Agrochemicals into Honey Bee Nurses, Royal Jelly, and Effects to Developing Queens

This dataset contains data from a queen-rearing experiment, on the translocation of agrochemicals (pesticides and a spray adjuvant) from pollen into the bodies of nurse honey bees, their royal jelly secretions, and their effects to the survival of developing queens, to emergence and to 7 days post-emergence. Annotated R scripts used for analysis are included. A link to the associated paper will be made available upon publication. Abstract:Honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies that pollinate California’s almond orchards are often exposed to mixtures of agrochemicals. Although agrochemicals applied during almond bloom are typically considered bee-safe when applied alone, their combined effects to honey bees are largely untested. In recent years, beekeepers providing pollination services to California’s almond orchards have reported reductions in queen quality and brood health during and immediately after bloom, raising concerns that pesticide exposure may be involved. Previous research identified a synergistic effect between the insecticide chlorantraniliprole (Altacor) and the fungicide propiconazole (Tilt) to lab-reared worker brood. To test the individual and combined effects of these pesticides on the survival and emergence of developing queens, we fed worker honey bees in closed queen rearing boxes with pollen artificially contaminated with their formulated products as well as the organosilicone spray adjuvant DyneAmic. The translocation of pesticides from pesticide-treated pollen into the royal jelly secretions of nurse bees and developing queens was also measured. Despite consistently low levels of all pesticide active ingredients in royal jelly, the survival of queens from pupation to 7 days post-emergence were reduced in queens reared by worker bees fed pollen containing a combination of Altacor, Tilt, and DyneAmic, as well as the toxic standard, Dimilin 2L, applied in isolation. We advise caution when applying agrochemical mixtures when honey bees are actively pollinating crops.