Sorption of pesticides to novel materials: snail pedal mucus and blackfly silk

The distribution coefficients for 10 pesticides (atrazine, cyanazine, desmetryn, fenitrothion, malathion, parathion, prometryn, propazine, simazine, terbutryn) to both snail pedal mucus and blackfly larval silk are measured and found to be orders of magnitude higher than for soil organic carbon. The lowest values are found for the triazine herbicides (e.g. 19,000 ml g−1 for simazine on silk) and the highest for the organophosphorus insecticides (e.g. 242,000 ml g−1 for malathion). The distribution coefficients for pedal mucus are more difficult to quantify in terms of the organic carbon distribution coefficients but, by mass, are much higher than the corresponding soil distribution coefficients. The sorption affinities obtained for blackfly silk are similar in magnitude to literature data for sorption of pesticides and polyaromatic hydrocarbons to natural organic colloids.