Nicotine also Kills Bees

          Insecticides are important for farmers’ use who evidently wants to prevent unwanted pests to negatively affect their crops. However, certain pesticides can be extremely harmful to bees that land on the plants and flowers that have chemicals on them and can die. Even worse, the pollinator can become covered in the insecticide and kill the queen and other bees when it returns to the hive. Farmers and other planters obviously do not intend to harm important insects that pollinate their plants so they can reproduce. Thus certain insecticides were developed to only kill unwanted pests. An insecticide called neonicotinoid was believed to work effectively for this job. This chemical contains nicotine which is what the term neonicotinoid refers to, “new nicotine”. How neonicotinoid works is it is highly soluble so it can be transported naturally by waterways and runoffs which can be taken up by plants miles away. This insecticide is meant to be absorbed by the plants usually through the soil. This is unlike most insecticides that get sprayed on the outside of the plant where insects such as bees can extract the chemical and be harmed.

           This way of going about using neonicotinoid because of how it works would seem to be the best insecticide to use so you only kill the pests that feed on your plants or crops. Recent studies however have been showing that neonicotinoid may be harmful to bees in the long run. There has been a gradual decline in the bee population that scientists have been attempting to solve and the use of neonicotinoid may be a significant reason. Because this specific insecticide is transported by water it will become absorbed by flowers and other plants miles away that bees pollinate on. A study found that most of the pollen they observed contained neonicotinoid which would be how bees could have extracted this chemical. “To their surprise, neonicotinoids were mostly detected on pollen from plants other than corn — willow trees, clovers and wildflowers — located near the crop fields” (Dengler).

These bees that are coming in contact with neonicotinoid would not die immediately, which was why people thought that this was not harmful to bees, but would spread it to their fellow bees sometimes including the queen. “The new studies say the environmental levels of neonicotinoids surrounding farms do not obliterate bee colonies outright, but instead kill them over extended periods of time. The pesticides also threaten bee queens in particular — which means colonies have lower reproductive rates” (Dengler). The studies that tested neonicotinoid when it was first in production were tested in very small quantities unlike the quantities being used by agriculturists and farmers. Yet the recent study on bees that never were exposed to neonicotinoid performed the experiment in rounds, each round being less and less amounts of the insecticide. Surprisingly these bees still suffered, living a quarter less than a normal bee life. What also was discovered in this study was how neonicotinoid not only shortens the life span of bees but impairs their natural defense system. “While humans rely on vaccines or antibiotics, bees use social immunity, a tactic bees use to clean out dead or sick brood insects from the nest” (Dengler).

            Those who use insecticides need to be aware of recent research such as this and have knowledge of what insecticides to use and how to use them. “Solutions, emulsifiable concentrates, and granulars are the best formulations to use” (Entomology). Even if over half the number of worker bees are killed from an insecticide they will recover if there is a change in how it is used. If the insecticide made it into the honey in the hive then the queen will be affected, killing the entire colony. This can be prevented if the honey combs are cleaned after the proper insecticide is applied.

Works Cited

Dengler, Roni. “Neonicotinoid Pesticides Are Slowly Killing Bees.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 29 June 2017, www.pbs.org/newshour/science/neonicotinoid-pesticides-slowly-killing-bees.

“Entomology.” Pollination: Protecting Pollinators from Pesticides, CAES NEWS, www.caes.uga.edu/departments/entomology/research/honey-bee-program/bees-beekeeping-pollination/pollination/pollination-protecting-pollinators-from-pesticides.html.

“What Is a Neonicotinoid?” Insects in the City, citybugs.tamu.edu/factsheets/ipm/what-is-a-neonicotinoid/.
Pictures: 
1. “Ban Neonicotinoids.” Avaaz.org
2. "Keep Selling Pesticide-Coated Seeds― And May Harm Bees"Mercola Newsletter