Pesticides are messing with honeybees' sense of direction, study says

Humans are proving to be a real buzzkill for bees. A new study finds that honeybees' innate ability to learn and remember where flowers are — and returning to their hives to show other bees where to search — are being seriously impaired due to several kinds of pesticides. A fuzzy mental state is potentially fatal for bees, who rely on "scent memory" to find the thousands of flowers they visit in search of nectar and pollen. Part of this process includes navigating back to the hive and doing a "waggle dance" to communicate to others in the colony where their flowers are. Studies have shown pesticides negatively impact bees' memory and ability to communicate, though it is not yet clear how much they affect the disastrous colony collapse disorder. [Source]

Click msnNOW.com, updated 24 hours a day.