Pest Manag Sci. 2025 Jun 25. doi: 10.1002/ps.70017. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Plant Protection Products (PPPs) consist not solely of active ingredients. Some of the other ingredients of the finished formulations are intended to enhance the efficacy of the main active ingredient. The PPPs’ effects impact honeybees that pollinate crops by exposing them to a complex of numerous chemical compounds. Depending on their composition, PPPs affect these insects in various ways. The present study estimated the effect of sublethal doses of insecticide (Active Ingredient (AI): indoxacarb) and commercial adjuvant (AI: alkylbenzene sulphonic acid sodium salt) applied individually and as a combination of these two formulations, on thermal preference and CO2 emission rate of bees, and expression of the genes CYP9Q1, CYP9Q2, and CYP9Q3 involved in detoxification processes of these insects.
RESULTS: Aqueous solutions of adjuvant and a mixture of both formulations statistically significantly altered honeybee thermal preferences (a decrease in the selected ambient temperature by 1.4 and 0.9°C, respectively). CO2 emissions levels also changed (a drop of 1.7% for the insecticide-treated group, 10% for those treated with adjuvant and 15.4% for those treated with both formulations applied together). The levels of the transcripts of the genes CYP9Q1, CYP9Q2, and CYP9Q3 were significantly elevated only in the head of the honeybee, but not in its abdomen.
CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that ready-made PPP formulations, their adjuvants, and their mixtures determine the physiological status of honeybees, although the direction of changes might vary depending on the analyzed parameter. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.
PMID:40557483 | DOI:10.1002/ps.70017
