Effect of Nanoemulsion of Hexanal on Honey bees (Hymenoptera; Apidae)

Abstract

The effect of nanoemulsion of hexanal to honey bee species viz., Apis cerana indica (Fabricius), Apis mellifera (Linnaeus), Apis florea (Fabricius) was evaluated in the Department of Nano Science and Technology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) Coimbatore during 2015- 2016. Nano emulsion of hexanal at varying concentration was tested using dry film method against honey bees in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) replicated three times. Nano emulsion of hexanal (0.06%) showed maximum mortality of worker bees up to 7.65 percent in A. cerana indica, 5.80 percent in A. mellifera and 5.20 percent in A. florea at 24 hours after treatment as against the recommended dose of 0.02 percent which effected on mortality of 4.33 percent in A. cerana indica, 4.75 percent in A. mellifera and 4.05 percent in A. florea at the same measure of exposure. The results clearly indicated that all the concentration of nano formulation of hexanal was harmless to worker honey bees which recorded a mortality of < 30 percent as per the threshold prescribed by IOBC.