Knowing that many seeds these days are treated with neonics , I'm wondering if that stuff is also present in the plants grown from seeds from the original plant . And how many generations does it persist if in fact it does . I like to save my seeds because I believe that seeds from a plant grown here will be more acclimatized to this area . Second and 3rd gen seeds even more so ...
As far as I know, the biggest problem with seeds treated with neonicotinoids is in large scale agriculture, because of the amount of dust released when the seeds are handled and planted.
The amount of the chemical in a single seed vs. the whole plant that grows from it and the fruit and seeds of that plant is not something a home gardener need worry much about. You take bigger risks each day walking through your house and out to the garden, driving a car, or crossing a street on foot.
My concern is not for me , but for the bees ... we have one hive so far , but it'll be split in the spring and our goal is 5-8 hives total . Fortunately there is very little monocropping in our area , no soybeans , rice , etc .
Be careful of the Seven also. It is particularly deadly to bees.
I'd anticipate oxidative and photolytic degradation. Pesticides with long lives like chlordane have been banned today.
No. The problem with insecticides is when they get into the environment in sufficient quantity to be ingested by beneficial organisms, such as bees, and so to kill or damage them . This cannot happen here. The whole idea of 'organic' seeds is rather religous muddy thinking to me.
And how many generations does it
Neither individual seeds nor plants acclimatise in a way that is transmitted to their offspring (this is the discredited Lamarkism). However, if you always breed from those that perform best in your conditions you can gain an advantage because you are then altering the composition of the gene pool in a way that future generations will suit the conditions (this is Darwinian selection). In enough generations you could form your own cultivar. This has been the basis of selective plant breeding for thousands of years even before people understood how it worked.
You mentioned seed saving, so I figured you were concerned for yourself.
The big risk to bees from treated seeds is due to the dust generated spreading to bee forage nearby and actual applications of neonics in quantity to plants, particularly orchards (as a control for beetles that attack fruit) and lawns (to control grubs). It's also used to inject landscape trees (the only actual verified control for emerald ash borer, for example).
If your neighbors' are treating for grubs, that might be an issue, particularly if their lawns contain white clover or they have extensive flower gardens that could have taken up the grub control.
The thing is, the neonicotinoids act systemically and are thus protected from degredation by being inside plant tissue. They were designed to be taken up by plants and have a fairly long half-life in soil.
OTOH, persistence from a few plants grown from treated seeds, especially in saved seeds through several generations, would not be a problem.
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