美国农业部农业研究局和密西西比州立大学的研究人员对 42 种常用杀虫剂进行了测试，发现包括草甘膦和啶虫脒在内的许多杀虫剂对蜜蜂没有负面影响。
根据 报告在 今日昆虫学, the testing was carried out in a way that was “more realistic field setting on cotton row crops” than have been preformed in previous studies. They essentially mimicked a situation where an adult bee in a cotton field accidentally gets sprayed. In addition, researchers used pesticides the commercial formulations that would be used by farmers in their fields. “This is an important distinction because most previous research tested the active ingredients only, which did not include other chemicals that influence the distribution, absorption, and overall exposure of the pesticides to plants and bees,” the report said.
根据 今日昆虫学, “The pesticides tested included 40 insecticides and miticides, one herbicide (glyphosate, better known by its trade name “Roundup”), and one fungicide (tetraconazole). What made this study more realistic was not only the field spray application of each pesticide, but also the interpretation of data. The researchers determined the lethal concentration and lethal dose of each pesticide (to determine chemical toxicity), and then matched those numbers with the amounts of pesticide actually used in agriculture. In this way, they could rank pesticides by individual chemical toxicity as well as by how much they are used in the field. Chemicals that were not used as much ranked lower despite toxicity, while chemicals that were used more tended to rank higher.”