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Accepted manuscript

Evaluating Deterrent Effects on Pollinator Contact Exposure to Fluorescent Powder in White Clover-Infested Turfgrass

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2025

Navdeep Godara
Affiliation:
Graduate Research Assistant, School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061
Alejandro I. Del Pozo-Valdivia
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Department of Entomology, Hampton Roads Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia Beach, VA, 23455
Juan R. Romero Cubas
Affiliation:
Graduate Research Assistant, School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061
Joseph Leo
Affiliation:
Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Entomology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061
Shawn D. Askew*
Affiliation:
Professor, School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061
*
Author for correspondence: Shawn D. Askew; Email: saskew@vt.edu
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Abstract

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Pollinators are susceptible to insecticide residues when foraging on weedy flowers in turfgrass systems. Deterrent practices may mitigate this risk by reducing pollinator visits; however, their effectiveness in limiting contact exposure of pollinators has not been thoroughly evaluated. Two trials were conducted using a randomized complete block design with three temporal blocks to assess the effectiveness of deterrent practices in preventing contact exposure of actively trapped honey bees (Apis mellifera) and passively trapped insects to fluorescent powder-treated white clover (Trifolium repens L.) inflorescences in turfgrass. Deterrent treatments included mowing the same morning before fluorescent powder application, spraying with a premix of 2,4-D, MCPP, and dicamba two d before powder treatment, or no deterrent before powder application. Fluorescent powder was extracted from 1,440 honey bee specimens collected by active trapping at 4 and 28 hours after treatment. Mowing and synthetic auxin herbicides pre-treatment reduced the number of fluorescent powder-exposed honey bees by at least 75% and 93%, respectively. Among exposed honey bees, mowing and herbicide treatments reduced powder concentration by at least 75% and 90%, respectively. Honey bee visitation was positively correlated with T. repens inflorescence density, explaining 81% of visitation variability. Mowing transiently decreased T. repens floral density by 85%, but recovered by 7 d, while herbicides resulted in complete loss of floral resources by 7 d. Blue vane traps captured 1,117 bees from 23 species, over 96% of which were native, while yellow sticky cards collected 384 insects from the Lepidoptera, Diptera, and Coleoptera orders. Despite differences in honey bee exposure, deterrent treatments did not affect the exposure of passively trapped pollinators to fluorescent powder, likely due to strong visual attraction of traps. Results suggest that mowing and synthetic auxin herbicides effectively deter honey bees from T. repens inflorescences, reducing their exposure risk.

Information

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Weed Science Society of America