THE SHOCKING TRUTH ABOUT THE EFFECT OF PESTICIDES ON BEES

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Pesticides make honeybees and bumblebees dull-witted, less intelligent and prone to bad judgment according to a new study published by the British Ecological Society. Many do not understand the complex process bees go through to produce honey and pollinate flowers.

Jar of honey
Honeybee on a piece of wood
Bee

Work bees collect food from sources spread over an area of several kilometers. They communicate the exact location, type, and nature of the food to other bees in the hive by performing an intricate dance that is yet to be fully understood.

Beehives have guard bees that check and ensure that only members of the colony are allowed to enter. Bees “speak” to each other using dance moves that are unique to a particular beehive. Researchers have observed that bees that feed on fermented nectar are refused entry due to the strange dance they perform.

Just as fermented nectar can cause bees to bump into stationary objects, the effect of pesticides that are currently labeled ‘safe’ for use is similar. The above study collected evidence from 23 studies of honeybees and bumblebees and concludes that insecticides hurt bee survival.

Bees start to stick out their tongue when they come near the scent of delicious, sugary nectar. In lab experiments, researchers exposed bees to pesticides and encouraged them to foliage after that. They observed an adverse effect on when and how they stuck their tongues out.

When researchers analyzed data from 23 studies, they discovered that there was an adverse effect on the memory of bees exposed to doses of pesticides similar to those found in the field. The result was the same whether the contaminants were neonicotinoids or other pesticides.

Governments increasingly regulate the use of neonicotinoids, a class of pesticides used extensively since the 1990s but are now suspected of killing bee colonies when overused. However, the study shows that even the officially 'safe' pesticides are dangerous because they make bees dumber.  The effect was the same whether the exposure as sudden or over a prolonged period.

Researchers suspect that the insecticides affect other types of bees not included in the study adversely, but the extent is unknown.

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