Pesticides affect bees’ ability to locate flowers, drink nectar
GUELPH, Ontario, March 14 (UPI) — Bumblebees exposed to even low levels of pesticides have trouble acquiring the pollination skills necessary to retrieve nectar from some wildflowers — especially those with complex shapes.
Researchers found bumblebees exposed to neonicotinoid insecticide took longer to collect pollen and sought pollen from different flowers than control bees.
“Bees rely on learning to locate flowers, track their profitability and work-out how best to efficiently extract nectar and pollen,” senior study author Nigel Raine, the Rebanks Family Chair in Pollinator Conservation at the University of Guelph, said in a press release. “If exposure to low levels of pesticide affects their ability to learn, bees may struggle to collect food and impair the essential pollination services they provide to both crops and wild plants.”
