A new method that can detect a large range of pesticides in bees could help scientists work out what is causing the global decline in honey bees. A study using the method found up to 57 different pesticides and digested pesticide compounds in poisoned honey bees.

Share on Pinterest The researchers say their findings will help expand knowledge about the influence of pesticides on honey bee health.

A paper on the study, by the National Veterinary Research Institute in Pulawy, Poland, is published in the Journal of Chromatography A.

The researchers, led by Tomasz Kiljanek of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, report how they developed and validated a method for simultaneously detecting up to 200 pesticides and metabolites in honey bees.

Honey bee populations are falling worldwide, including in the US. Without the honey bee, American dinner plates would look quite bare; around one third of the food eaten in the US comes from crops pollinated by honey bees.

One of the reasons honey bees are declining in Europe and the US is a condition called colony collapse disorder (CCD).

While nobody has yet fully explained the causes and mechanisms of CCD, scientists generally agree several factors could be involved and working together – pesticides being one of them.

Because some studies have linked them to bee deaths, the European Union have already banned the use of neonicotinoid pesticides.

However, the problem of declining bee populations is not going to be solved by banning one pesticide, say the authors of the new study. With so many pesticides in current use, it is very difficult to work out which ones could be harming bees. Harm can also arise from combined effects, or accumulation over time.