Repellent Additives to Reduce Pesticide Hazards to Honeybees: Laboratory Testing

SummaryOf 143 chemicals tested to determine their potential to repel honeybees from pesticide-treated agricultural crops, many well known insect repellents proved non-repellent to bees. Chemicals were evaluated quantitatively to determine their efficacy in preventing or deterring bees from feeding from food containers either containing a candidate repellent (gustatory test), or surrounded by a disc bearing a candidate repellent (spatial test). Few behavioural observations were made. Structurally, compounds containing nitrogen, short side-chain substituted phenyl acetates and/or tolyl compounds showed the most promise as honeybee repellents. Chemicals with thymol-like odours also appeared promising.