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Ecology

Bumblebees and pesticides

Nature volume 491, pages 43–45 (2012)Cite this article

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A study showing the effects of two pesticides on bumblebees highlights the need for risk assessments to consider multiple species and the complex chain of factors that determines insect exposure to chemicals. See Letter p.105

Gill and colleagues investigated the effects of two insecticides (imidacloprid and λ-cyhalothrin) on the development and growth of bumblebee colonies, and on the foraging activity of individual bees, by tagging them with microchips. The researchers placed feeders of sugar syrup that had been spiked with imidacloprid, and/or filter paper treated with λ-cyhalothrin, in the path of bumblebees leaving their nest boxes. Significantly, the bees were not restricted to visiting the treated material — they could bypass the filter paper and the feeder, and they were able to forage in the surrounding landscape for pollen and nectar.

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Figure 1: A complex exposure landscape.

Notes

  1. *This article and the paper under discussion10 were published online on 21 October 2012.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Juliet L. Osborne is at the Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9EZ, UK.,

    Juliet L. Osborne

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  1. Juliet L. Osborne
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Correspondence to Juliet L. Osborne.

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Competing interests

J.L.O. has a research project partly funded by Syngenta.

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Osborne, J. Bumblebees and pesticides. Nature 491, 43–45 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11637

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