D3115: Do neonicitinoid pesticides impact collective behavior of honey bees?

Insecticides are important agricultural tools, but often have non target effects on pollinators. Neonicotinoids are a commonly used insecticide in residential and agricultural settings. The target insects include sucking/chewing insects that destroy important crops like berries and potatoes. Neonicitinoid pesticides negatively impact honeybee health and behavior. Specifically, these pesticides impair memory, learning, and flying behavior in foraging bees. Most research has focused on how neonicitinoids impact individual bee behavior; however, little research has been done on effects of these chemicals on important social behaviors. Bees are social insects and beehives are made up of a group of bees that work together and manage tasks. One critical social behavior that could be impacted by neonicotinoids is temperature regulation of the colony. Fanning is the act of bees flapping their wings to cool down their colony. The optimal colony temperature is 36ºC – if the colony gets too hot, the developing baby bees can die, and the queen will stop laying eggs, which could result in colony death. Bees perform this job as a group – isolated bees do not fan, but small groups of 3 or 10 bees will fan in a lab setting. We found that neonicitinoids significantly diminish the fanning behavior in small groups of bees. My work helps us understand how these insecticides may scale from affecting individual behaviors to impact critical collective behaviors that keep social insect societies healthy and stable.