Transcript:

Bees - Pesticidesambience: beehive Honeybees are being threatened by parasitic insects known as mites. Typically, mites have been controlled by pesticides, but there's evidence that the pesticides are harming the bees as well. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.Anderson: The focus of my research is to better understand pesticide exposures to honeybees and the health risk that these pesticide exposures may cause. Troy Anderson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Entomology at Virginia Tech. Anderson: Our initial studies have shown that beekeeper-applied pesticides, are actually causing some differences in nutritional and immune health. Now, is it just the pesticide itself? Probably not.There are numerous stressors that can affect honeybee colony health, and pesticide exposures happen to be one of those stressorsAnd so, we start our experiments by examining these pesticide effects, or exposures, to honeybees in the laboratory environment. And then, we take that information, and we apply it to a field setting to find out what's really going on at the colony level. There's a disconnect between those measures in the lab and what's really going on at the colony level. And so, what we're going to try to do is fill in those gaps where knowledge is limited.With our research thus far, we have shown that there are differences between laboratory effects and colony-level effects. You may see a significant effect on nutrition or immunity with these pesticide exposures in the laboratory, but at the colony level, you may not see anything at all.You have a lot of factors that are going on within that hive. And so, you may have an effect at the nutritional level or an immune level with one individual, but that doesn't necessarily mean the colony is experiencing the same thing. We'll hear more about bees in future program. Pulse of the Planet is made possible in part by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.