The impact of the nation's most widely used insecticides on birds

Call Number:

URL:

Keywords:

Abstract:

The neonicotinoids represent a relatively new group of insecticides. They were introduced in the early 1990s to counter widespread resistance in insect pests and increasing health and safety objections to the organophosphorous insecticides. Although of lower acute toxicity to vertebrates than the latter, the neonicotinoids’ longer persistence, high water solubility, runoff and leaching potential, as well as their very high toxicity to pollinators, are placing them under increasing public and political scrutiny, especially now that they have become the most widely used pesticides in the world. Their toxicity to pollinators has brought them the most attention so far and has dominated the recent concerns of regulatory institutions worldwide. This report reviews the risk that neonicotinoids pose to birds. Birds have borne more than their fair share of impacts from pesticides – from the early issues of eggshell thinning with DDT to the extensive mortality caused by the organophosphorous and carbamate insecticides that followed. Some researchers have suggested that birds may already be affected by neonicotinoids and that, at least in Europe, bird population declines can be blamed on these popular insecticides. The main products reviewed here are acetamiprid, imidacloprid, thiacloprid, clothianidin, and thiamethoxam. Minor compounds include dinotefuran, nitenpyram, and nithiazine. For the sake of comparison, this report discusses, where appropriate, a number of older insecticides that the neonicotinoids have replaced. This includes the organophosphorous insecticides diazinon, chlorpyrifos, malathion, terbufos, and methamidophos, the carbamate insecticides carbofuran, methomyl, the pyrethroids tefluthrin and deltamethrin, as well as the seed treatment insecticide carbathiin. The report emphasizes US regulatory history although it makes reference to Canadian and EU regulatory reviews where relevant.

Notes:

ELECTRONIC FILE - Zoology: Birds

SWAP (2/19/2016) citation:
Mineau P, Palmer C. 2013. The impact of the nation's most widely used insecticides on birds. The Plains (VA): American Bird Conservancy. [accessed 2016 Jan 6]. http://extension.entm.purdue.edu/neonicotinoids/PDF/TheImpactoftheNation...