Synergistic effects of glyphosate formulation herbicide and tank-mixing adjuvants on Pardosa spiders

Glyphosate-based herbicides are the world’s most consumed agrochemicals, and they are commonly used in various agroecosystems, including forests, as well as in urban zones and gardens. These herbicides are sold as formulations containing adjuvants. Other tank-mixing adjuvants (most often surfactants) are commonly added to these formulations prior to application. According to the manufacturers of agrochemicals, such tank mixes (as these are known in agronomic and horticultural practice) have modified properties and perform better than do the herbicides as used alone. The effects of these tank mixes on the environment and on beneficial arthropods are almost unknown. Therefore, we studied whether a herbicide formulation mixed with adjuvant has modified effects on one of the most common genera of ground-dwelling wolf spiders vis-à-vis the herbicide formulation and adjuvants themselves. Specifically, we studied the synergistic effect in the laboratory on the predatory activity (represented by the number of killed flies) of wolf spiders in the genus Pardosa after direct treatment using the glyphosate-based herbicide formulation Roundup klasik Pro®, Roundup klasik Pro® in a mixture with the surfactant Wetcit®, Roundup klasik Pro® in a mixture with the surfactant Agrovital®, and the surfactants alone. We found that pure surfactants as well as herbicide-and-surfactants tank mixes significantly decrease the predatory activity of Pardosa spiders in the short term even as Roundup klasik Pro® did not itself have any such effect. Our results support the hypothesis that plant protection tank mixes may have modified effect on beneficial arthropods as compared to herbicide formulations alone. Therefore, testing of pesticide tank mixes is highly important, because it is these tank mixes that are actually applied to the environment.