ITHACA, N.Y. – Cornell University scientists may have found an antidote to pesticides that are directly and indirectly killing bees, showing promising early results in common eastern bumblebees.
The findings, published in Nature Sustainability, are critically important, as bees provide essential pollination services for close to 80% of the world’s crops, but annual losses of managed U.S. honeybee hives averaged up to 44% between 2017 and 2020.
The proof-of-concept study in bumblebees describes the use of tiny ingestible hydrogel microparticles – 5 microns in diameter and only visible under a microscope – that physically bind to neonicotinoids, a class of pesticides banned in Europe and still in limited use in the U.S. Once absorbed, the pesticides and microparticles pass through the bee’s digestive tract and are excreted.
The study found that when the microparticles were fed to bumblebees in sugar water, they led to 30% higher survival rates in bumblebees exposed to lethal doses of neonicotinoids, and significantly lessened symptoms in bumblebees exposed to sub-lethal doses of the chemical.
The antidote has the potential to be selectively applied to other pesticides, including widely used organophosphates.
“Bees are crucial for crop pollination and agriculture, and food security, so it’s important for people to take bee health seriously,” said Julia Caserto, a postdoctoral research and the paper’s first author. Minglin Ma, professor of biological and environmental engineering is the paper’s corresponding author.
Eliminating pesticides altogether would be a good goal, but may not be fully realistic, Caserto said: “We want to try and overcome these pesticide exposures in managed bees so that we can still have sufficient crop pollination for us all to be sustainable.”
Future research directions could include testing the remedy on managed honeybees, which are smaller than bumblebees, so the pesticides may have different effects.
The treatment is not feasible for wild bees, since it would be difficult to administer the microparticles. If the antidote is eventually applied to managed bees in the field, the microparticles could be added to supplements already in use, such as pollen patties, which include pollen and other nutrients.
The study was supported by the New York State Environmental Protection Fund and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
For additional information, read this Cornell Chronicle story.
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Journal
Nature Sustainability