Bees and toxic chemicals

Bee intoxication can result from exposure to ethanol from fermented nectar, ripe fruits, and manmade and natural chemicals in the environment.

Charles Abramson's group at Oklahoma State University has put inebriated bees on running wheels, where they exhibit locomotion difficulties.

Some bees that consume ethanol become too inebriated to find their way back to the hive, and die as a result.

[2] Bozic et al. (2006) found that alcohol consumption by honeybees disrupts foraging and social behaviors, and has some similar effects to poisoning with insecticides.

[2] Researchers place the bees in harnesses, and feed them varying concentrations of alcohol in into sugar solutions.

[10] Bees can be severely and even fatally affected by pesticides,[11][12][13][14] fertilizers,[15][16][17] copper sulfate (more lethal than spinosad),[18][16] and other chemicals that man has introduced into the environment.

[23] The United States Environmental Protection Agency has published standards for testing chemicals for bee intoxication.

For example, Dariusz Szlachetko of the Department of Plant Taxonomy and Nature Conservation, Gdańsk University observed wasps in Poland acting in a very sleepy (possibly inebriated) manner after eating nectar derived from the North American orchid Neottia.

[25] Detzel and Wink (1993) published an extensive review of 63 types of plant allelochemicals and their effects on bees.

The bucket orchid attracts male euglossine bees with its scent, derived from a variety of aromatic compounds.

The bees store these compounds in specialized spongy pouches inside their swollen hind legs, as they appear to use the scent (or derivatives thereof) in order to attract females.

The passageway constricts after a bee has entered, and holds it there for a few minutes, allowing the glue to dry and securing the pollinium.