Crops will now be pollinated by robotic bees?

Ordinary honey bees pollinate about a third of all plants consumed by humans for food. However, because of the extremely harmful, strong and widely used insecticides based on neonicotinoids, bee colonies began to die out with enormous and frightening speed.

Threats

Bees are dying out in thousands and hundreds of thousands due to illnesses, loss of safe habitats and colonies destruction syndrome - a phenomenon in which worker bees leave their colonies, leaving enough food only for the growth of young bees and maintaining the health of the queen. The syndrome of destruction of colonies is extremely dangerous not only for the production of honey, but also for the set of ecosystems that depend on the activity of colonies of bees.

Various viruses and poisoning by harmful chemicals lead to the fact that more than two thirds of working bees are lost in the fields and can not find their way to the hive. Previously, the number of lost bees did not exceed one-third.

Main reasons

The widespread use of harmful insecticides and pesticides, especially on the basis of neonicotinoids, leads to poisoning and diseases of worker bees. Recently, scientific evidence has emerged that confirms that neonicotinoid insecticides are closely related to the increase in the number of cases of colon disruption syndrome.

Another important cause of extinction of honey bees are parasites and other pathogenic microorganisms. Varroa, brought from India, causes varroatosis and is dangerous not only for causing disorientation of bees, but also because it is extremely adaptable to any attempts to destroy it. These mites do not kill the worker bees themselves, but parasitize on their larvae, leading to the fact that the offspring disappear. Perhaps because of this bees and leave the colony.

Effects

Due to the poisoning of the environment and plants by chemicals, as well as the development of new, resistant diseases, some species of bees have been added to the list of threatened species.

Diseases, inadequate behavior and the extinction of worker bees are a relatively global phenomenon, and its scale and speed forces not only scientists but also statesmen around the world to think about what it can threaten for agriculture and ecosystems. The fact is that under the threat of extinction are not only bees, but also some types of butterflies, including monarch butterflies.

Prevention measures

The US government published a national strategy for the protection of pollinators, according to which it is planned to achieve the following results by 2025:

• Restore the health of colonies of honey bees;
• Increase the number of Oriental butterflies-monarchs to 225 million individuals;
• Improve and clean the chemicals of three million hectares of land to provide pollinators with a safe environment.

However, based on the experience of Ontario province, Canada, cleansing the land of neonicotinoids may not be an easy task, and in 2025 there may not be enough pollinators to inhabit this territory.

Prohibition of neonicotinoids

In Ontario, the government has decided to reduce the use of harmful insecticides by 80% by 2017, because they have already caused the death of millions of bees.

After plant seeds planted with neonicotinoid insecticides land, they release chemicals harmful to bees and other pollinators throughout their growth period. This contradicts the claims of the manufacturers of these treatment facilities, who argued that chemicals degrade and do not harm the ecosystem.

Components of such pesticides are found in soil and plants. In addition, traces of these chemicals are found even in fields where insecticides are not used. The thing is that bees, during pollination, transfer these substances from one plant to another, thereby spreading chemicals. But this is not the worst thing. These harmful substances are then sent to the beehive, where the entire colony is harmed.

Technological measures

While governments are trying to develop active and effective strategies, scientists also do not stand aside. They are actively looking for other approaches to solving the problem.

Researchers at Harvard University have created a small robot, the size of a bee that can fly and spin a short distance above the ground.

Details of the new development were published in the journal Science and describe the new robot as one more step towards the discovery, capable of saving ecosystems and agriculture. The new robot will not only be able to take off and circumnavigate the earth, but also carry more weight than earlier designs.

Scientists working on previous versions of the robotic bee encountered a number of difficulties, since it is extremely difficult to create a robot that can remain light enough to soar in the air and not damage the delicate structure of the flower. However, given the latest achievements, scientists are confident that, given the funding, they will be able to create technologically advanced robots capable of pollinating plants instead of bees within the next decade.

Probability of pollination by robots

Given that most governments are much more concerned about the dangers to agriculture than to bees themselves, the likelihood of financing such technology projects is significantly increased.

However, robotic bees do not yet represent an ideal solution. They still can not work as well as a hive or a whole colony. In order to really replace bees, robots should be able to carry out the task not only autonomously, but also coordinating with other robots, which must be at least hundreds of thousands. In addition, robots should be relatively stable and be able to adapt to variable conditions, otherwise failure or loss of several robots will affect the work of the whole group.

All this is extremely difficult to think and improve, that's why scientists insist that robotic bees should only become an extreme measure and the government should be primarily concerned with preserving the health of live honey bees and combating the syndrome of destruction of colonies.

How to save bees?

Most of the recent research on the causes of extinction of bees connects the phenomenon with the widespread use of pesticides and other harmful chemicals.

A study of Harvard scientists published in June directly relates neonicotinoids to colonial destruction syndrome and claims that this syndrome is not only the cause of dysfunction of colonies of bees, but also the cause of the death of bees. It is worth noting that neonicotinoids are the most popular component of insecticides.

Insecticides, fungicides and pesticides cause irreparable damage to bee colonies wherever modern chemicals are used. A study published in the journal Nature argues that bees that are influenced by chemicals used in the agricultural industry are twice as likely to be lost and can not find their way to the hive, unlike bees living in healthy regions. In addition, those individuals who manage to return to the colony lose their productivity in collecting pollen.

Another proof that chemicals cause extinction of bees is the geographical profile of the colony destruction syndrome. The syndrome is common in regions where insecticides and pesticides are used.

Bees found dead in the fields show signs of poisoning with chemicals. Sometimes this poisoning is so strong that the bee can not find the strength to go back to the hive and die there.