Bees ‘get a buzz’ from food laden with pesticides

Bees get a ‘buzz’ from nicotine-like pesticides in much the same way as smokers are stimulated by tobacco, startling new research suggests.

In a series of experiments, bumblebees and honeybees actively preferred sugar solutions laced with the neonicotinoid chemicals.

This was despite evidence that the bees could not taste the pesticides. Rather than enjoying the taste, they seemed to be reacting to a pleasurable ‘high’ as the chemicals activated reward centres in their tiny brains, the scientists believe.

Just like smokers reaching for another cigarette, the bees returned to food tubes containing the ‘spiked’ sugar again and again, choosing them over solutions free of pesticide. The research is important because it suggests bees may be exposed to harmful doses of ‘neonics’ as a result of being so attracted to the chemicals.

Lead scientist Professor Geraldine Wright, from the Institute of Neuroscience at the University of Newcastle, said: “Bees can’t taste neo- nicotinoids in their food and therefore do not avoid these pesticides. This is putting them at risk of poisoning when they eat contaminated nectar.

“Even worse, we now have evidence that bees prefer to eat pesticide-contaminated food. Neonicotinoids target the same mechanisms in the bee brain that are affected by nicotine in the human brain,” he said.