Why is it in news?
- Bumblebees acquire a taste for food laced with a pesticide known to harm them, according to a study suggesting the chemicals pose an even greater threat to pollinators than previously thought.
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In experiments, researchers showed that bees initially put off by sugar water containing neonicotinoids ”” the most widely-used class of insecticides worldwide ”” soon started seeking them out to the exclusion of untainted food.
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Neonicotinoids, earlier research has shown, disrupt the ability of bees to reproduce and lower their resistance to disease.
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Even when the position of their feeders was switched, the pollinators made a beeline for the one laced with insecticide.
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Neonicotinoids target nerve receptors in insects.
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The United Nations warned last year that 40% of invertebrate pollinators risk global extinction.
Source
The Hindu