Investigation of the effects of some insecticides on food consumption of Bombus terrestris L. queen, male and workers

Pesticides used to control pests have negative effects on bees, such as Bombus terrestris L., which are important for pollination, as well as on the target organism. The effects of different doses of the terpenoid blend QRD 460 TBQ 152.3 g/l (Requiem EC, BAYER) and flupyradifurone (Sivanto SL 200, BAYER), which have been introduced to the market in recent years for sustainable agriculture and insect resistance, on workers, queens, and males of B. terrestris were assessed by feeding exposure. It was found that among the bee caste groups, worker bees consumed more and significantly different food than queen bees and drones at Flupyradifurone 60 and 120 mg/l water doses. No significant differences in food consumption were observed between castes in the trials with different doses of Terpenoid. As a result, we found that the food consumption of queen bees was less affected by high-dose applications compared to male and worker bees and that the application that least affected the food consumption of queen bees was Terpenoid 383 mg/l water dose. In addition, it was found that the worker bees reached the highest consumption levels in the doses of 383 and 766 mg/l water at Terpenoid.