Efeito de formulações de nim na sobrevivência de operárias de Apis mellifera

• Autor(a) principal: Amaral, Rodrigo Lopes
• Data de Publicação: 2011
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: LOCUS Repositório Institucional da UFV
• Texto Completo: http://locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/3959
• topic: Apis mellifera; Nim; Toxidade; Pesticida; Apis mellifera; Neem; Toxicity; Pesticides; CNPQ::CIENCIAS AGRARIAS::AGRONOMIA::FITOSSANIDADE::ENTOMOLOGIA AGRICOLA

Pollination is an activity threatened by the indiscriminate use of pesticides, which can lead to lethal effects on bees, especially in forager adults due to their contact with pesticides, but also on larvae if the pesticides are carried back to the nest. Botanical pesticides supposedly have advantage over synthetics, and can be used as a viable alternative to control pests causing minor damage to beneficial insects. The neem tree, Azadirachta indica, stands out among these botanical pesticides, because of its efficiency in pest control. On this basis, we evaluated the effect of neem on the survival of forager adults and of larvae of Apis mellifera. We tested three neem based insecticides, Organic Neem (1,7 g a.i./L), Azamax® (12 g a.i./L) and Neemseto (2,4 g a.i./L) mixed to the adult diets. Organic Neem-treated bees showed no significant differences in their survival as well as those treated with lower concentrations of Azamax®. Bees that received the highest concentration of Azamax® (480 mg a.i./L) and of Neemseto (96 mg a.i./L) had their survival reduced. In the case of Neemseto this lower survival can be explained by the presence of other compounds besides azadirachtin. For Azamax® can be due to the high content of azadirachtin contained in the formulation. Two concentrations of Azamax®, 60 mg a.i./L e 120 mg a.i./L were tested in larvae, mixed to their diets. The mortality of treated larvae was 100% and none achieved the pupa stage. We observed low intake of food showing antifeedant action of neem. Azadirachtin at low concentrations was not harmful to adults of A. mellifera, but proved to be highly toxic to the larvae. High concentrations of azadirachtin and the presence of other components, such as nimbin and salanin, in the formulation of the insecticides may have seen the cause of the high toxicity to adult bees.