A UK Guardian article Bee decline could be down to chemical cocktail interfering with brains
reports fears that pesticides are causing damage to the brains of bees causing cognitive and communication disorders which have seen sharp declines in the overall number of bee species which are vitally important to the pollination of the world's crops:"According to the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, three of the 25 British species of bumblebees are already extinct and half of the remainder have shown serious declines, often up to 70%, since around the 1970s. In addition, around 75% of all butterfly species in the UK have been shown to be in decline. The new £10m Insect Pollinators Initiative (IPI), the largest programme to date of its kind, will look at the multiple reasons thought to be behind this devastation in insect population.
Chris Connolly of Dundee University's Centre for Neuroscience has been awarded £1.5m to lead the work on whether pesticides are having an affect on the brains of bees. Pesticides could be blocking the electrical and chemical signals between neurons, he said, and only subtle changes may be required to produce serious brain disorders. These problems might stop bees identifying the best sources of nectar, or it might affect their ability to navigate to nearby food source and back home again.
Brain disorders in bees might also interfere with their ability to communicate with nest-mates using the "waggle dance", where bees come back to their hive and spread information about the food sources they have found."
Those poor misguided Brits. Haven't they learned that when it comes to neurological disorders there are no environmental factors involved?
Haven't they heard of the flawed statistical surveys of human beings which demonstrate beyond any question, or demonstrate somewhat anyways, that neurological disorders like autism are 100% genetic?.
Haven't they heard that when it comes to neurological disorders like .. oh .. say .. autism ... "it's gotta be genetic"?
The Glasers are doing their part for butterflies . . . we ordered a kit and are watching caterpillars turn into butterflies with the goal if releasing them if they will only lay a couple of eggs for us! :-) Blog post on the way . . .
ReplyDeleteI know you're being serious Harold but I keep cracking myself up saying its "gotta bee genetic". Sorry, so corny.
ReplyDeleteHi Harold,
ReplyDeleteMy son was a bee for Halloween once, perhaps I should put him back in the bee costume so part of the 10 million pound sterling can be used to study environmental factors for ASD. He does a pretty good bee imitation!
Barry