Toxicity of "Talastar" (Bifenthrin) to Birds?

[Steve Long]

When I heard a motor sound behind my house, I looked out the window to see a man in protective clothing spraying some sort of material in the bushes of the house across the fence from my back yard.  Some of it was clearly coming over the fence and getting on our Hummingbird feeder as well as our herb garden.  I went over to the neighbor's house and talked to the pesticide sprayer, who was hired to cut down on the mosquito population in our neighbor's yard.  He was spraying a product trade-named "Talastar" with the active ingredient being bifenthrin.

 

I looked-up the MSDS on bifenthrin, and it does not seem to be a cumulative toxicity issue for people when applied as I saw it being sprayed.  With their two small children and the local swarms of imported Asian mosquitos that are active in daytime, plus the local occurrence of West Nile Virus, I can understand my neighbor's decision to use this pesticide.

 

With respect to birds, the MSDS stated :

"Bifenthrin is only slightly toxic to both water fowl and upland game birds with LD-50

values ranging from 1,800 mg/kg to > 2,150 mg/kg."

In addition, it states:

"There is a potential for bifenthrin to bioaccumulate, with it having a bioaccumlation factor of 11,750."

So, I am wondering if there is any known issue with spraying this mosquito control chemical in backyard bird habitat.

 

Steve Long

[Ross Geredien]

Steve,

A Bio-accumulation factor of 11,750 is very high.  This means that tissue concentrations can reach this many times the ambient levels in the environment.  

Ross

 

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From: Steve Long <steve...@verizon.net>
To: MD Birding <mdbi...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, September 3, 2012 10:19 PM
Subject: [MDBirding] Toxicity of "Talastar" (Bifenthrin) to Birds?

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[David Kidwell]

Steve, 

My wife is a toxicologist and noted that Talastar is not water soluble and cannot be simply washed off the herbs.  That is also why it bioacumulates easily.  Apparently its impact on birds is not well known and is based primarily on data from quail and mallards.  In the limited studies on birds, acute toxicity appears to be low, but chronic toxicity is not well characterized.  

 

Dave

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David M. Kidwell