News in Brief Animals

Neonicotinoids are partial contraceptives for male honeybees

Common pesticides reduce amount of living sperm in test

Carniolan honeybee

Male honeybees (a Carniolan honeybee shown) produce less live sperm if they’re raised on pollen tainted with neonicotinoids, a new study shows. 

Makro Freak/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5)

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

Pollen tainted with neonicotinoid pesticides could interfere with honeybee reproduction.

After eating pollen spiked with thiamethoxam and clothianidin, males made almost 40 percent fewer living sperm than males fed clean pollen, researchers note in the July 27 Proceedings of the Royal Society B.