Bees could become addicted to pesticides, study finds

Bees can actually become addicted to pesticides

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published 23 April 2015

You might assume that bees would avoid pesticides, which could be harmful to them, but new research suggests the opposite.

A study published in the journal Nature found that bees are attracted to sugary solutions that include the pesticides imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, and they can actually become addicted to the pesticides.

Researchers from England's Newcastle University found that bees can't detect low levels of neonicotinoids, the most common group of pesticides. (Previous research has suggested that bees could avoid neonicotinoid-treated plants.) The scientists found that bees were attracted to pesticides that contained sucrose, which affected their brains' reward centers in the same way human brains are affected by nicotine. The Washington Post notes that while neonicotinoids have been banned in Britain for two years, they are still used in the United States.