Emission of pesticides during drilling and deposition in adjacent areas

Abstract

In seven experiments seeds of maize, oil seed rape and barley, treated with neonicotinoids, were sown using pneumatic drilling equipment with deflectors attached in case of pneumatic suction systems. Directly adjacent to the drilled area of usually about 50 m width were replicated areas with bare soil as well as with crops. During maize (Zea mays) drilling flowering oil seed rape (Brassica napus) and during drilling of barley (Hordeum vulgare) and oil seed rape flowering white mustard (Sinapis alba) was adjacent. The amount of residues in the adjacent non crop areas in Petri dishes being distributed on the bare soil declined only slowly from 1 to 20 m distance from the area drilled. Seed batches with more abrasion and higher content of active substances in the dust resulted in higher residues off crop. After drilling of maize in four experiments in Petri dishes in adjacent non crop areas in 1-5 m distance between 0.02 and 0.40 g a.s./ha of neonicotinoids and in the adjacent oil seed rape a total of 0.05–0.80 g a.s./ha were detected. After drilling oil seed rape or barley these values were only 0.02–0.06 g a.s./ha in Petri dishes in non crop areas and 0.03-0.08 g a.s./ha in total in adjacent white mustard. In gauze net samplers installed vertically in 3 m distance in non crop areas up to seven times higher values were detected compared to Petri dishes.

Keywords

• neonicotinoid
• seed treatment
• dust
• drift
• adjacent crop