Corn Planting Dust, and the Potential for Impact on Honey Bee.

Six sites were identified for the 2014 Ohio planter dust trials comparing the Bayer fluency agent to farmer chosen lubricants. In 2015, eight sites were chosen to compare planter types, seed lubricants and field edge composition for the movement of neonicotinoid dust.

• Three sites directly included the farmer chosen vs. Bayer product comparison.

Air assisted planters are many, with air assistance applied at the supply end or the delivery end or both. The planters here represent the range found in Ohio.

• Dust visually seen at planting appeared similar across the planter types, coming from ground engagement of planter units for the most part.

Dust analysis from the traps determined there were little differences between the Bayer fluency agent and the farmers choice products (talc, graphite or combination product).

• Our attempt to measure accumulated load with a planter frame mounted slide tray shows that we can accumulate large amounts of insecticide on the planter during planting.
• The slide sets under the planter, with which we hoped to determine the amount of insecticide directly deposited to the soil surface, have higher levels of insecticide as compared to the targets farther away (and above the surface). Directly deposited insecticide is higher at the soil surface than that which moves off site in dust.