Save The Bees Concert

For the first time, a field study shows that social time cues override influence of light and darkness in regulating the natural body clock of honeybees, highlighting the complexity of clock regulation in natural habitat   Nurse honey bees working around the social clock at an experiment by Hebrew University researchers. Credit: Muki Nagari Circadian … More Honeybee circadian rhythms are affected more by social interactions

PARIS (Reuters) – French lawmakers approved plans for a total ban on some widely used pesticides blamed for harming bees, going beyond European Union restrictions in a fierce debate that has pitched farmers and chemical firms against beekeepers and green groups. The EU limited the use of neonicotinoid chemicals, produced by companies including Bayer Crop … More France moves towards full ban on neonics blamed for harming bees

Scientists say they have found the “missing link” in the debate over the risk of pesticides to bees. French researchers say neonicotinoid pesticides harm individual honeybees, but whole colonies are able to recover in the wild. This accounts for discrepancies between lab and field studies, they report in Royal Society Journal Proceedings B. A Europe-wide … More Bees and pesticides ‘missing link’ found

A decline in bumble bee populations in Europe and North America has been documented in a number of recent publications. Meanwhile, little is known about bee populations in Alaska, where native bee pollination is critical to the maintenance of subarctic ecosystems. Researchers have now completed a two-year study on bumble bees in agricultural areas in … More Bumble bees in the last frontier, Alaska

Bumble bees have discriminating palates when it comes to their pollen meals, according to researchers. The researchers found that bumble bees can detect the nutritional quality of pollen, and that this ability helps them selectively forage among plant species to optimize their diets. The scientists conducted a laboratory cage study in which they placed bees … More Picky eaters: Bumble bees prefer plants with nutrient-rich pollen

Since bee colonies started declining at alarming rates over the past few decades, some scientists have identified a group of pesticides called neonicotinoids that are commonly used on crops as a potential contributor. A team reports in American Chemical Society’s journal Environmental Science & Technology that bees could be getting an unexpected dose of neonicotinoids … More Wildflowers on farms — not just crops — can expose bees to neonicotinoids

Researchers discover new mechanism associated with worldwide decline of bee populations One possible cause of the alarming bee mortality we are witnessing is the use of the very active systemic insecticides called neonicotinoids. A previously unknown and harmful effect of neonicotinoids has been identified by researchers. They discovered that neonicotinoids in low and field-relevant concentrations … More Neonicotinoid pesticides cause harm to honeybees

Pesticides, which are sprayed in the amounts of billions of pounds per year, have been making a lot of noise lately. This is because multiple published studies, and hundreds of scientists all over the world have identified (without a doubt) them as a catalyst for multiple major human health ailments, including cancer, Parkinson’s & Alzheimer’s … More New Harvard Study Measures Pesticide Accumulation In Bee Hive Honey: Alarming Results

Why eat nasty things? Because your enemy finds it even nastier Solitary mason bees specializing on sunflower pollen were not attacked by a common brood-parasitic wasp, which lays eggs in the nests, where its larvae kill bee eggs and eat their pollen provisions.   A Sapyga wasp lurking at the entrance of a mason bee … More Sunflower pollen protects bees from parasites

The declines of honey bees and other pollinators have been at the forefront of recent scientific publications and popular press. Accumulating evidence suggests that no single stressor alone is responsible for declines. Rather, it is probably a combination of abiotic and biotic factors acting in synchrony, to have a negative impact on pollinator populations. Pesticides … More Pollinator exposure to neonicotinoid and other insecticides results in population decline of the bees