Do bees have more sense than humans?

Bee-keepers all over the world have been worrying about the unexplained deaths of bee colonies, and the loss of these busy insects is of course disastrous news for farmers, gardeners and orchard-owners, since the function of bees as pollinators is vital.

A strange clue was reported by Fiona Harvey in the Guardian recently. The US Department of Agriculture has found that bees are sealing up cells filled with pollen if they find them to be contaminated with pesticides. The pollen is normally used to feed young bees, but their elders are deliberately putting polluted cells out of use. Dr Jeff Pettis, an entomologist with a long track record of bee research accepts that bees must be sensing the presence of pesticides and ‘recognising that something is wrong.’ Sadly, their desperate measure often precedes the death of the hive, but it does seem to indicate that bees have identified a potential cause of their destruction. It just remains for humans to exhibit the same good sense.