Cathy Isom has some stinging news about an alarming study that shows honeybees like what’s actually bad for them. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
Researchers at University of Illinois have discovered that honeybees, which have been dying off in mass numbers every year for the past couple decades, seem to prefer flowers that are sweeter but also laced with harmful chemicals.
The study tested honeybee consumption of different sugar syrups, some plain and some with different concentrations of common pesticides. They found that while the bees didn’t care for syrup with extremely high concentrations of pesticides, at low levels, the bees flocked to those pesticides.
Among the pesticides tested, was one of the most common ones used in the United States. Previous studies have also shown that same pesticide called Chlorothalonil, which is known to be used on peanuts and potatoes, was also found to be attractive to honeybees.
I’m Cathy Isom…