An analytical method was developed to extract  and to analyze simultaneously atrazine, chlorpyrifos, chlorothalonil, coumaphos, coralox, and t-fluvalinate in bee tissues and wax. The optimized bee method used 3 g of bees and 30 mL of a 1:1 hexane:dichloromethane extraction solution. Cleanup was done using polystyrene-divinylbenzene cartridges capped with graphitized black carbon. The wax extraction method used 0.5 g wax and 10 mL of extraction solvent (same as for bees). Extracts were cleaned with a combination of Florisil solid phase extraction and gel permeation chromatography. Extracts were quantified using GC/MS-NCI for all of the target analytes, except atrazine, which was quantified using GC/MS-EI. Extraction efficiencies for the two matrices ranged from 70 to 120%, and minimum detection limits were well below reported toxicological benchmarks. In addition, total lipid extracts were conducted on the bees to separate the lipids into neutral and polar fractions and analyzed for fatty acid profile.

Optimization of a method to quantify agrochemicals in bee tissues and wax

246th National Meeting (2013)

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