Data on the presence of corn seed treatment insecticides in bee-collected pollen and increased honey bee mortality associated with corn planting, persistence of the insecticides inside honey bee colonies, and long-term growth of these colonies in central Ohio. We also constructed spatial models, based on empirical data of honey bee foraging and dispersion patterns of planter dust, and landscape compositions, to simulate hypothesized exposure routes via contamination of foraging resources and aerial exposure resulting from flight through localized dust plumes from planters and diffuse dust in the landscape over all resulting from widespread planting activity. Insecticide concentrations under different hypothesized exposure routes were then compared with the observed levels of contamination to evaluate these hypotheses.

This dataset is associated with the following publication: Kuan, C., G. DeGrandi-Hoffman, R. Curry, K. Garber, A. Kanarek, M. Snyder, K. Wolfe, and T. Purucker. Sensitivity analyses for simulating pesticide impacts on honey bee colonies. ENVIRONMENTAL MODELLING AND SOFTWARE. Elsevier Science Ltd, New York, NY, USA, 376: 15-27, (2018).