A certain pesticide has been discovered to strongly effect bees even in small amounts. It is not completely clear from this article, although it seems like the pesticide to blame is imidacloprid from a group of pesticides called neonicotinoids. This pesticide is causing bees to ignore flowers that are slightly less sweet, but that they would normally feed on, and only feed from flowers with sweeter nectar. The pesticide is also effecting how the bees communicate with the other works as to where good food is. An experiment done with honey bees being exposed to a small amount of imidacloprid, shows that the treated bees waggle dance less or even stopped dancing all together. In this same test, the treated bees were much less willing to eat low concentrations of sugar water compared to those that were not treated. The danger in this is that the more picky bees are over the sweetness of food may mean a drastic reduction of the amount of resources that can be brought back to the colony to keep them alive and healthy. This could potential explain the increase of colony collapse disorder across North America and Europe since 2006, as beekeepers have lost one third of their colonies every year. This article makes clear that, although the main culprit for the decline of bees is not known, imidiacloprid was the sixth most common pesticide sold for agricultural and home gardens in California in 2006 and is very likely a contributor.
Although it is very worrisome to learn that even very small doses of these pesticides could have a huge impact of bees, it seems beneficial to be finding this information. Hopefully, changes can now be made to stop the decline of bees and change it to increase of bees. Likely, this group of pesticides is not the only thing to blame, however, every step that can be taken to help bees prosper is a good step. I wonder, if these pesticides were eliminated from our environment, how much of an effect it would have on plants, not just bees?
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