Pesticides damage the growth of learning ability in bees

7 Mar 2020

Recommended for Bees

Pesticides are often used on plants to control insects, weeds etc. But pesticides also have harmful effects on the soil and other vegetation.

Recently, a study showed how pesticides are harming brain growth in baby bumblebees.

Researchers at the Imperial College London conducted a study on baby bumblebees.
They sprayed the nectar with a pesticide called neonicotinoids.
Some baby bees or larvae consumed the pesticide-spiked nectar. Others fed on the nectar without any pesticides.
Once the babies grew as adults they were tested first after 3 days and then after 12 days.

The results

The bees who were fed the nectar with the pesticide while they were young showed impaired or damaged learning ability. This means their ability to learn was much less than the bees who did not feed on the pesticide nectar.
Researchers also used micro-CT scan technology to scan or see parts of the bumblebees’ brain.
They found that those exposed to the pesticide had a smaller volume of a part of the insect brain called ‘mushroom body.’ The mushroom body in an insect’s brain is related to the learning ability.
The results were the same after both 3 days and 12 days.
This meant that baby bees, once affected by the pesticides, did not become better even when they stopped consuming pesticide-infected nectar as adults.