Availability of Using Honeybees and Hive Products as Bioindicators of Ambient Pesticide Exposure in Taiwan

Honeybees and hive products could be used as bioindicators of pesticide exposure in surrounding areas, but the associations have rarely been examined. We collected samples of bees, hive products and environmental dust from 12 apiaries during the blooming season in eastern Taiwan and assessed the relationships between pesticides in apiarian samples and the environment. Samples were analyzed for 14 pesticides using gas or liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Sick bees, dead bees, bee pollen, beeswax and environmental dust in the outer rings (>150 m) surrounding the apiaries were contaminated with high levels of pesticides (mean concentration: >270 ng/g in total). In terms of concentrations of all pesticides, insecticides, herbicides and fungicides, most apiarian sample matrices were significantly correlated with environmental dust within a range of 2.5 km (ρ > 0.6, p < 0.05), suggesting their potential as bioindicators. Of those apiarian matrices with high contamination contents, dead bees or beeswax may be a good bioindicator for all pesticides but not for herbicides, because of the insignificant correlation with environmental dust (ρ < 0.5). For all types of pesticides, we recommend sick bees and bee pollen as choices for bioindicators, because of their high contamination levels for detection and complete representativeness of the environment.