Speaker: G. Christopher Cutler, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University
Pollinator declines and pesticides: What’s the role of neonicotinoid insecticide seed treatments?
Thursday, April 7, 2016 | 4:00 pm
Room 154, MacMillan Building, 2357 Main Mall
Insecticides are often (but not always!) toxic to bees, and most people probably have at least some aversion to pesticides. It’s therefore not surprising that insecticides, particularly the widely-used neonicotinoid insecticides, have become a lightning rod for debate over concerns of pollinator declines.
In this talk, I will attempt to contextualize the different aspects of this problem. I will briefly review what we know about pollinator declines, and point to some misconceptions on this issue. I will follow with a general overview of the fundamental principles and different elements of the pesticide risk assessment process for pollinators. I will conclude with a discussion of some work from my laboratory group, mainly field studies that have attempted to characterize the risks that dietary exposure to pollen and nectar from neonicotinoid seed-treated canola and corn pose to honey bees and bumble bees, respectively.
About the Speaker:
Chris Cutler was born and raised in Newfoundland. He holds degrees from Memorial University, Simon Fraser University, and the University of Guelph, and conducted post-doctoral research at the University of British Columbia. He has been at the Dalhousie University Faculty of Agriculture (formerly the Nova Scotia Agricultural College) since 2007, where he teaches and conducts research mainly in the areas of insect pest management and insect ecotoxicology.
Dr. Cutler has received national awards for his research from the Entomological Society of Canada and the Agricultural Institute of Canada. He has published extensively on various aspects of insect pest management and pesticide risks to pollinators, and has delivered many invited talks in Canada, the United States, Brazil, and Europe on this topic.
About Dr. H.R. MacCarthy
Dr. MacCarthy began his career in agricultural research in 1948 as a student assistant at the Field Crop Insect Laboratory at Kamloops. Mac grew up in England, was an agriculturalist in Australia, a cattle rancher at Princeton, B.C. for 9 years, and spent nearly 6 years in war service with the Canadian Infantry Corps. After returning from war service in 1946, Mac attended the University of British Columbia, receiving his B.A. in Zoology in 1950. He went directly on to graduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley and was awarded his Ph.D. in 1953.
He returned to Kamloops and worked there until 1955, when he was appointed Officer-in-Charge of the Field Crop Insect Laboratory on the campus of the University of British Columbia. He was named Head of the Entomology Section of the Vancouver Research Station in 1959. Dr MacCarthy’s research was largely on the transmission of potato leaf roll virus by aphids. Collaborative work by him and other scientists at the station led to almost complete control of potato leaf roll virus in the province.
Dr. MacCarthy was an adjunct professor at Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Pest Management since 1974. Immediately following his retirement from Agriculture Canada in 1976, he became a sessional lecturer at Simon Franser University, and
was acting director of the Centre for Pest Management for more than two years. His specialty was always improving the English of thesis writers and others who needed it – a category for which he never found an exception. Dr. MacCarthy passed away on April 7th, 2004.