In The News: August
Most Extensive Study Shows a Beeg Problem with Pesticides The largest study ever conducted on pesticides, spanning 2,000 hectares across the UK, Germany and Hungary was set up to find "real-world" issues caused by the pesticide. The study showed negative impacts not only on honey bees, but also with wild bee species. Each country had different findings, but all had evidence that showed pesticides do negatively impact our pollinators! Corny and Queenless Another study published in the journal Science looked at commercial corn-growing areas of Canada.The study conducted found that neonicotinoid exposed worker bees had lower life expectancies and the entire colony exposed to the pesticides were more likely to permanently lose queens. Without the queen, a hive is doomed to collapse. While bees are not required for corn pollination, they are needed for many other crops found in Canada. The decrease in bee populations would indirectly affect the corn and all around agriculture industry in Canada. 
Give A’s To the Bees The concept of Zero, a concept even many people don’t seem to understand, does not fly by the bees! In fact, our flying friends seem to understand the idea of zero, and are the first bug that does! The bees were encouraged to fly to platforms with more shapes than the other platforms. While doing so, they recognized the platform that did not have any shapes as having less than the platform with shapes. Bees also respond to rewards and punishments. When approaching the desired platform, they were given a sweet solution. When approaching the undesired platform, they were given a undesired flavored solution. The bees that were given both reward and punishment learned faster than those just rewarded. It is unclear as to why bees have this ability, but we can all agree it is pretty sweet! Insecticide Exposure May Cause The Bumble Bees to Disappear In the latest findings in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, the scientist stated that when Queen bumblebees were exposed to a common insecticide, many were unable to lay eggs. Without this ability, the bumblebee species would go extinct. It was also noted that the time of interaction with the insecticides also mattered, as certain stages in the queen’s life cycle are more sensitive than others. Like all studies that revolve around these chemicals, it is evident that research should be conducted to see the impact they have on our environment before we use them.
Give A’s To the Bees The concept of Zero, a concept even many people don’t seem to understand, does not fly by the bees! In fact, our flying friends seem to understand the idea of zero, and are the first bug that does! The bees were encouraged to fly to platforms with more shapes than the other platforms. While doing so, they recognized the platform that did not have any shapes as having less than the platform with shapes. Bees also respond to rewards and punishments. When approaching the desired platform, they were given a sweet solution. When approaching the undesired platform, they were given a undesired flavored solution. The bees that were given both reward and punishment learned faster than those just rewarded. It is unclear as to why bees have this ability, but we can all agree it is pretty sweet! Insecticide Exposure May Cause The Bumble Bees to Disappear In the latest findings in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, the scientist stated that when Queen bumblebees were exposed to a common insecticide, many were unable to lay eggs. Without this ability, the bumblebee species would go extinct. It was also noted that the time of interaction with the insecticides also mattered, as certain stages in the queen’s life cycle are more sensitive than others. Like all studies that revolve around these chemicals, it is evident that research should be conducted to see the impact they have on our environment before we use them.