These Pesticides Could Be Birth Control for Bees
The world's most widely used insecticides leave drones with less sperm for their queen. Could this be a factor in the worldwide collapse of honeybee colonies?
The world’s most widely used pesticides may be acting as birth control for male bees, according to new research published Tuesday.
Male honeybees exposed to neonicotinoid insecticides produced fewer living sperm cells than unexposed males.
The study by scientists in Switzerland is the first to examine the effects of this class of pesticides, which has been linked to honeybee die-offs in recent years, on the fertility of male bees. “Our data highlight one possible way that neonicotinoids can affect honeybees,” said senior study author Geoff Williams, a bee researcher at the University of Bern in Switzerland.
Male honeybees, called drones, serve one purpose—to mate with a queen. Because their main contribution to the colony comes in the form of sperm, they often are
