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Bees get hooked on harmful pesticide
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.
More in news
- 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.
- Neonicotinoids, earlier research has shown, disrupt the ability of bees to reproduce and lower their resistance to disease.
- Even when the position of their feeders was switched, the pollinators made a beeline for the one laced with insecticide.
- Neonicotinoids target nerve receptors in insects.
- The United Nations warned last year that 40% of invertebrate pollinators risk global extinction.
Source
The Hindu