Thiamethoxam: Assessing flight activity of honeybees foraging on treated oilseed rape using radio frequency identification technology

Abstract The present study was designed to assess homing behavior of bees foraging on winter oilseed rape grown from seed treated with thiamethoxam (as Cruiser OSR), with 1 field drilled with thiamethoxam‐treated seed and 2 control fields drilled with fungicide‐only–treated seed. Twelve honeybee colonies were used per treatment group, 4 each located at the field edge (on‐field site), at approximately 500 m and 1000 m from the field. A total of nearly 300 newly emerged bees per colony were fitted (tagged) with Mic3 radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders and introduced into each of the 36 study hives. The RFID readers fitted to the entrances of the test colonies were used to monitor the activity of the tagged bees for the duration of the 5‐wk flowering period of the crop. These activity data were analyzed to assess any impact on flight activity of bees foraging on the treated compared with untreated crops. Honeybees were seen to be actively foraging within all 3 treatment groups during the exposure period. The data for the more than 3000 RFID‐tagged bees and more than 90 000 foraging flights monitored throughout the exposure phase for the study follow the same trends across the treatment and controls and at each of the 3 apiary distances, indicating that there were no effects from foraging on the treated crop. Under the experimental conditions, there was no effect of foraging on thiamethoxam‐treated oilseed rape on honeybee flight activity or on their ability to return to the hive. Environ Toxicol Chem 2016;35:385–393. © 2015 SETAC