Neonicotinoid insecticide residues in subsurface drainage and open ditch water around maize fields in southwestern Ontario

Abstract

Neonicotinoids are widely used class of insecticides. Most are seed treatments and during planting active ingredient may be abraded and lost in fugitive dust. Much of this active ingredient contaminates surface waters, exposing aquatic organism to potential ill effects. This study examines concentrations of neonicotinoids appearing in tile drains and open ditches around commercial maize fields around planting time where neonicotinoid seed treatments had been used. This sample set represents surface water leaving the point of origin, for which data are sparse. Clothianidin was found more often than thiamethoxam and at higher concentrations; at a median concentration of 0.35 ng/mL in tile drain water and almost twice that (0.68 ng/mL) in ditches into which the tiles are draining after applications of 19 g/ha on seed. This concentration reveals a 40 to 50 fold dilution for neonicotinoid residues between the points where they leave the field in which they were applied and when they are found in nearby streams in a similar ecosystem. Our data support that for a no-observed-effect concentration of 0.3 ng/mL for thiamethoxam there would be between a 1.6 and 100-fold margin of safety to mayflies in most streams if fugitive dust on pneumatic planters were properly mitigated.