The toxicity of imidacloprid and its metabolites to
honey bees has been addressed previously (Faucon et
al. 2005), although to date, no association between its
appearance in pollen and the mortality of honey bee
colonies has been demonstrated in the field (Chauzat
et al. 2009, Nguyen et al. 2009). Imidacloprid is authorized
in Spain for use in maize and sunflower crops,
fruit trees and vegetable crops and there is a great
concern about its implication in bee disappearance. In
this survey, pollen from maize or sunflower was only
detected in the 9.4 and 10.4% of the stored pollen
samples, respectively, and never as the main taxa.
Hence, from the examination of these results, if pesticides
such as fipronil or imidacloprid present in these
crops could lead to intoxication problems in honey bee
colonies, they would be relatively isolated events and
not a widespread problem in our country.
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