[HN Gopher] Bumblebee queens choose to hibernate in pesticide-co...
___________________________________________________________________
Bumblebee queens choose to hibernate in pesticide-contaminated soil
Author : andai
Score : 57 points
Date : 2024-10-20 16:08 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (phys.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (phys.org)
| more_corn wrote:
| Bees are plagued by mites and parasites. It could be that
| pesticides lead to fewer attackers for the bumblebees.
| vinnymac wrote:
| Makes me wonder if it could be that some of the pesticides
| attract the bumblebees, but not because of the absence of
| parasites.
|
| Presumably clean soil also has no mites or parasites in it.
| jvanderbot wrote:
| I don't think that's a safe assumption considering how many
| mites live on skin, or how many ticks live in pristine
| wilderness.
| vinnymac wrote:
| They actually mention this as an alternative explanation
| other than missing fungi and parasites after rereading the
| article:
|
| > Another possibility is that the queens could have
| developed an "acquired taste" for pesticides, as
| researchers put it, due to prior exposure in their
| environment.
| metalman wrote:
| the key might be that durring the torpor of hibernation
| the bees are less vulnerable to toxins than there
| parasites first question is do the parasites also
| hibernate or do they continue to feed on the bees,while
| the bees have crawled into a chemical spill and put
| themselves into suspended animation for 3-4 months and
| keep in mind that many insect species feed on toxic
| plants to deter preditors, monarch butterflys and milk
| weed is top of the list
| andai wrote:
| In one place I lived, there was some residue on the windows
| from stickers the previous tenants children had put on the
| windows.
|
| There was a wasp nest on the roof and the wasps kept going
| for the part of the window where the stickers had been. Must
| have been something in there that attracted them.
| metalman wrote:
| many larger animals self medicate and apply external anti pest
| substances I watch my horse roll and rub herself on bayberry
| shrubs,of which there are many in her 10 acre paddock,the bay
| berry is very aromatic and the seeds are so wax covered asnto
| be a useable source of candle wax. The paddock is also full of
| many many kinds of bees wasps and hornets,which I watch closely
| to see what they eat and where they shelter,with the idea to
| learn.how to create ideal habitat in areas with struggling bee
| populations,got a few pointers from watching,but the tid bit
| above is trurly facinating
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| I understand that's why cats like catnip.
| LorenPechtel wrote:
| That was my first thought on reading the title.
|
| Before we consider this a problem we should be looking at the
| survival rate in contaminated vs uncontaminated soil. I
| wouldn't be at all surprised of the queens are making the right
| choice.
| dfdz wrote:
| About a decade ago, TIME Magazine published A World Without Bees
| [1]
|
| Since then, many people seem to think bees are on the edge of
| extinction.
|
| In fact, there are more bees now than ever before [2]
|
| [1]
| https://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20130819,00.htm...
|
| [2] https://www.marketplace.org/2024/05/16/honeybee-
| populations-...
| PlunderBunny wrote:
| I believe the problem was always with wild bees (versus
| honeybees that were grown for commercial purposes).
| jt2190 wrote:
| Wild Bumblebees are not commercial honey bees.
| guilhas wrote:
| I used to run in a stretch of road on the outskirts, grass
| fields on both sides, from a certain sunny week every year, you
| could see quite a number of dead bees on the sidewalk, like 1
| or 2 every 2 metres for 400 metres. Something that never
| noticed anywhere else
| krick wrote:
| That's where you are supposed to see them, kind of, no big
| surprise here. It may sound surprising to some, given that
| bees travel by air, but they aren't good at crossing roads.
| When returning home after collecting the nectar they fly low
| and get literally hit by cars. So, apparently that place
| where you were running had a colony of bees on one side of
| the road, and their preferred food on the other, so a lot of
| bees were commuting daily over that dangerous place.
| pfdietz wrote:
| Those error bars are pretty wide, so I wouldn't read too much
| into this.
| PepperdineG wrote:
| It could be something like what happens with honey bees in
| chimneys. Honey bees think they've found a great hollow tree home
| with it even smelling like a tree due to creosote, but creosote
| levels are so high that it makes sick bee colonies. With
| bumblebees it might be something where bees are naturally
| attracted to smell thinking it's a good thing without being able
| to recognize there can be too much of a good thing, so will make
| them sick.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-10-20 23:01 UTC)