Scientists say a widely used pesticide can affect Apis mellifera ’ power to wing , making it harder for foraging bees to find their direction home . They published their finding in the journalScientific Reports .
Bee populations worldwide are currently facing a mountain of threats and difficulties . leech , habitat loss , and even antibiotics have all been implicated in the bee ’ downslope , but it may be pesticide that ’s doing the most damage .
Foraging honeybee ( Apis mellifera ) regularly take in small amounts of chemicals like thiamethoxam , a neonicotinoid pesticide that ’s regularly spray on monoculture crops like cotton plant , soybeans , and corn . A little window pane wo n’t kill the bees , and it wo n’t keep them from come up back to consume more the next day . Over metre , that chronic pic can mess them up .
biologist at the University of California San Diego’sNieh Labwanted to fuck if and how thiamethoxam could affect bee ’ power to fell . They exposed honeybees to low doses of the pesticide for two days , then strapped each one into this strange contraption — the bee version of a tread-wheel .
At first , the pesticide almost seemed like it was doing the bees a favor . Thiamethoxam - expose bee ab initio flew much farther and faster than bee who ’d never been near the chemical .
The problem is that they were n’t flying anywhere in particular . They seemed disoriented and soon wore themselves out in their mad , flailing sprint to get where they want to go . On the tread-wheel , this scare - type flying did n’t do them any trauma , but in the state of nature , these planetary , wearying flight pattern could keep the bees from ever getting home .
To make thing worse , give a pick , the bees almost always opt to waste pesticide , and they ate more when their food had been laced with the stuff .
" The love bee is a highly social organism , so the behaviour of thousands of bee are essential for the survival of the colony , " co - author James Niehsaidin a statement . " We ’ve prove that a sub - lethal dose may lead to a lethal impression on the entire colony . "
coping image byLuc Viatourvia Wikimedia Creative Commons // CC BY - SA 3.0
