World first confirmed: 1 ppb of the pesticide imidacloprid causes brain breakdown in honeybee larvae

To unravel the mystery of disappearing bees, National Taiwan University professor of entomology Yang En-cheng not only created the world's first "tattooed bee", but has now confirmed that just 1ppb (micrograms per liter, a concentration of one part per billion) of the pesticide imidacloprid is enough to affect bees: "It just can't be seen when they are larvae, but after eclosion their memory and learning ability collapse," and imidacloprid that remains in bee food and in the hive will also harm the "bee" descendants.

With their yellow-banded bodies and buzzing sound, bees shuttle back and forth between the hive and the flower clusters, busily gathering nectar and pollen. This pattern of survival and reproduction has been maintained for more than 100 million years. In recent years, however, the use of pesticides has added many variables to the daily life of bees as they gather nectar.

Some bees become slow of smell and cannot find usable flower clusters; some lose their way and forget to return, dying in a foreign place; others have poorer learning ability and cannot smoothly complete their nectar-gathering work, causing the entire hive to gradually crumble.

Although researchers in various countries point the finger at neonicotinoid pesticides, the most famous of which is imidacloprid. However, the latest research from National Taiwan University further points out that even if the amount of imidacloprid ingested by larvae is not lethal, the learning and memory abilities of the bees they grow into are already affected.