Introduction

This study determined the impact of the pesticide Ortho Max, with active ingredient Esfenvalerate, on Bacillus cereus (bacteria), Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies), Blue Lake bush beans, Spirit Hybrid sweet corn and Daphnia magna.  It is important to learn what potential non-target organisms may be affected by the use of certain pesticides so one can reduce the risk of harming these other organisms when using the pesticide.  Ortho Max is suggested for use on ornamental plants such as roses, flowers or shrubs, as well as vegetables and melons to control common insects, the target organisms.  Some of the non-target organisms would be insects that do not harm the plants, plants and insects that come in contact with the pesticide through water run off and other bacteria and organisms in the environment that are not harming the plants.  The pesticide gave no information about the effects on non-target organisms. (Source:www.ortho.com/)

We studied the effects of Ortho Max on several different organisms by introducing them to the pesticide through their environment in the Petri dish (bacteria), their food (fruit flies) and water source (beans and corn and Daphnia), as well as studying the organisms without the presence of the pesticide.  If Ortho Max were to have negative effects on those organisms, we would have expected low survival or production rates in the fruit flies, low growth rates for the beans and corn and low survival rates for the Daphnia.  We found that the pesticide did not negatively affect the growth of bacteria.  Our study showed more bacteria present with the addition of the pesticide.  For the fruit flies, we studied the effects of different dilutions of the pesticide on survival rates and reproduction rates.  The pesticide had a negative affect on the survivorship of the fruit flies up to .01% dilution.  The pesticide had a negative effect on the growth of the corn seeds tested as well as a negative effect on the number of roots present in the bean seeds.  The pesticide appeared to have a negative affect on the Daphnia magna.  These results show that the pesticide tested can have a negative affect on these non-target organisms and raises the question about the safety of using the pesticide without knowing the effects on other non-target organisms that share the same environment of the pesticide use.

Even without our experiments, plenty of testing has been done on the effects of esfenvalerate on non-target organisms, including humans.  A good example of this is a study contracted to Information Ventures, Inc. by the U.S. Forest Service in November of 1995.  This study confirms the risks of using esfenvalerate on several non-target organisms, including rabbits, birds and humans.  The study found that, "Esfenvalerate is moderately toxic to birds and mammals.  Esfenvalerate is highly toxic to fish and aquatic invertebrates.  It is highly toxic to bees." (Information Ventures, Inc.)  We continued the exploration of toxicity in non-target organisms using invertebrate such as Daphnia magna, as well as fruit flies.