Bee-safe pesticide dulls bees' sense of smell slightly
Vengarai M, Chauhan VK, Joseph J, Gupta AD
Pollinators
The bees pollinating your garden's tomatoes and squash rely on smell to find the right flowers, and even a 'safe' pesticide alternative can quietly blur that sense.
Farmers increasingly use biopesticides like DOR Bt-1, a bacteria-based spray, instead of harsh chemicals because they're supposed to be gentler on helpful insects like honey bees. Researchers fed bees this biopesticide and tested their brainpower using scent-based memory tests. The bees still learned and remembered just fine, but they got a little worse at telling similar smells apart, a skill they need to find the right flowers.
Key Findings
Both high and low doses of DOR Bt-1 biopesticide, when ingested, did not impair honey bee learning or long-term memory in olfactory conditioning assays.
Both doses caused mild impairment in odor discrimination ability in honey bees.
Study used the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) to evaluate a biopesticide commonly field-sprayed in Telangana, India.
chevron_right Technical Summary
A widely-used biological pesticide called DOR Bt-1, sprayed on crops in India, doesn't hurt honey bees' ability to learn or remember, but it does slightly mess with their ability to tell similar smells apart.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
The Buzz Around Biopesticides: The Effects Of Bt Formulation DOR Bt-1 On Honey Bee Cognition.
Chemical pesticide exposure is a major contributor to the global decline in honey bee and pollinator numbers. Biopesticides are naturally derived products that were developed as safer alternatives ...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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