Honeybees' ability to find flowers could be hampered by a chemical in diesel exhaust

[Sysop]

Honeybees' ability to find flowers could be hampered by a chemical in diesel exhaust, say scientists.

The study, published in Scientific Reports, also revealed that a specific group of chemicals found in diesel exhaust, known as NOx, diminished the insects' response to floral scents.

Read more on the BBC.

 

[Rayster]

I wonder if these are any of the scientists used by the UN and/or Al Gore?


actually;

I have two hives and my tractor does not seem to bother them at all. The detail of the study may be interesting. Like are they pumping exhaust into a hive? Also the ppm of exhaust in the air recorded. I am very skeptical of scientists, because they make money off taxpayers. Some are as crooked as the politicians that award them our money.


Old photo of single brood box, now they have two brood boxes and a super.

 

[RalphVa]

So, do we have to go to electric tractors?

Ralph

 

[Sysop]

WOW comedy hour...

No clue, I'm a freedom of choice sorta fella. If ya don't want honeybees around set some buckets of diesel around and light em on fire, it really don't matter to me... If ya don't want scientists around, burn them too, tis A-Okay by me. I might loan ya some fuel for Algore or the UN!

An electric tractor could be a big hit; ya should invent one, give it some thought... I'd bet JD and Kubota have entire R&D teams devoted to making it happen, so act fast!

I just thought it was an interesting read and figured some others might have an interest as well. Enjoy!

 

[RobertBrown]

I supose diesel exhaust might affect anyones sense of smell.
Did you read where the research was conducted by Dr. Guy Poppy? Thats pretty ironic, and kind of funny. Dr. Guy used trained bees Ha! Trained bees.......
Don't trains run on diesel?
I'm done. Thanks for posting

 

[jinman]

Too bad diesel fumes won't keep grasshoppers from smellin' my garden.

I just thought it was an interesting read and figured some others might have an interest as well. Enjoy!

It is an interesting read. Some of the most interesting things are that they cooked up their own simulated version of flower odors and found NOx reduced two of those odor components. They didn't even use bees in that test. Then they trained bees to drink sugar water in response to smelling "a particular chemical." Then they treated the odor producing chemical (that we still know nothing about) with NOx and the bees didn't drink as much sugar water. Wow! I guess this is good science.:confused2: I also guess that explains why we never see any blooming flowers along the sides of highways, and crops close to highways always fail because they don't get pollinated. It also occurs to me that if an accountant cooked the books the way some scientists cook their research, they'd be thrown in jail. To extrapolate the lab research to the real world takes real world tests, not some altered version of reality in a lab setting.

 

[Dr_Zinj]

Pathetically Poor Research. The moron who designed the experiment should have his teaching credentials yanked, and his degrees revoked.

 

[dmccarty]

Some so called professors at UNC were researching diesel exhaust fumes for the EPA. For years they sat people in containers that were then filled with diesel exhaust even though the EPA has ruled that certain components in the exhaust are deadly. The volunteers did know what they were breathing much less that the EPA ruled it deadly.

This came out last year and there are now lawsuits. Surprise, Surprise, Surprise. Since the people survived, I guess the exhaust is not so deadly as the EPA said. It is amazing that the EPA and so called scientists exposed people to chemicals that the researchers considered deadly. Unreal. One has to ask why this story was not picked up by say 60 minutes. Can you imagine what would have happened if a major company had done something like this?

Later,
Dan

 

[jinman]

Pathetically Poor Research. The moron who designed the experiment should have his teaching credentials yanked, and his degrees revoked.

Yes, and I failed to say that this poor research has nothing whatsoever to do with Sysop. I'm thanking him for posting the link to the story because we won't get that detail on the 10 o'clock news. The news media will treat it as absolute fact and incite the public to go on a witchhunt against oil companies. But, then again, they haven't done that yet, so maybe it's not fair for me to jump the gun based on the media's track record.

 

[Rayster]

I remember back in the 70's when Texas Highway Dept. would plant (scatter) bluebonnets along the sides of the highways. They don't have time for that crap anymore....