AUBURN — Entomologist Elissa Ballman will give a presentation, “Pesticide Exposure to Honey Bees in Maine,” at the next meeting of the Androscoggin Beekeepers Club Wednesday, April 12.

The meeting will be held in the vestry of the West Auburn Congregational Church, 811 West Auburn Road, Auburn. Club business will be conducted from 6:30 to 7 p.m. followed by the presentation. 

Ballman took part in research conducted by the University of Maine, where volunteer beekeepers across the state collected pollen for a pesticide analysis study. Twenty-seven volunteers from every county in Maine were represented in this study. The pollen was screened for 192 different pesticides by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.

Twenty-five pesticides were detected with an average of 2.9 detections per site. Findings were further analyzed by landscape type including blueberry agriculture, other agriculture, and non-agriculture, as well as by pesticide type.

Elissa Ballman

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Androscoggin Beekeepers Club, auburn maine, University of Maine
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