A recent study reveals some startling news about the effects some pesticides have on bees, and it’s not good news. According to researchers from Imperial College London and Queen Mary University of London, bees get addicted to some pesticides in the same way that humans get addicted to nicotine. [1]
Over time, bees start to enjoy the taste of pesticide-laced food, eventually eating more and more in what the authors of the study describe as addictive behavior.
The team specifically looked at neonicotinoids, a class of pesticides linked to bee deaths and overall poor health. Research shows that when bumblebees are exposed to neonicotinoids, the pollinators’ growth rate significantly drops, and the production of new queens declines by 85% compared with colonies not exposed to the chemicals. Neonicotinoids are banned in the European Union (EU).
Neonicotinoids are still widely used in the United States, but some large retailers have stopped selling the pesticides or have vowed to phase out their use.
For the study, the team tracked 10 bumblebee colonies over 10 days. Each colony was provided 3 types of feeders:
- 1 containing no pesticide
- 1 containing a low amount of pesticide
- 1 containing a higher amount of the product
The researchers counted how many times the bees visited each feeder and the amount of food they consumed. In addition, they changed the position of the identical feeders halfway through the experiment, to see which one the bees preferred.
At first, the bees chose the pesticide-free feeders. But eventually, they started eating from the laced feeders more and more and sought out the “clean” and low-dose pesticide feeders less. [1]
Researcher Andres Arce said: [2]
“We also saw that when the position of the feeders was changed, the bees responded and would still visit the feeders containing the pesticides – which indicates that they could detect the pesticide and would track it.”
In a statement, Richard Gill, lead researcher on the study and a lecturer at Imperial College London, explained that pesticides work in the bodies of bumblebees similarly to the way nicotine works in the human body. [1]
“Interestingly, neonicotinoids target nerve receptors in insects that are similar to receptors targeted by nicotine in mammals. Our findings that bumblebees acquire a taste for neonicotinoids ticks certain symptoms of addictive behavior, which is intriguing given the addictive properties of nicotine on humans, although more research is needed to determine this in bees.”
Actually, this information isn’t so new.
WATCH: Director of Pesticide Action Network Explains How Neonicotinoids Work
Unlike past studies that only offered food containing pesticides to bees, Gill and his colleagues wanted to test bees’ reaction to neonicotinoids in the wild, where they would be exposed to both clean food and contaminated food.
Gill explained: [2]
“We originally wanted to know if the bees could detect the presence of this class of pesticide and, if given enough time, learn to avoid food containing the pesticide.
In mammals, for example, we know that nicotine is an addictive property, so we could make that inference that maybe these neonicotinoids – considering they act on similar targets – may have similar addictive properties.
And our behavioral experiments suggest that that might be the case.”
The study is published in the Britsh journal The Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Sources:
[1] Newsweek
[2] ABC News