Microplastics threaten honeybees

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GET a honeybee near a rose or a lavender and the insect will extend its strawlike tongue to search for nectar, pollinating the flower in the process.

That's at least how it works in clean environments. But experiments show that when bees are exposed to microplastic pollution, their memory gets so muddled they may forget the scents associated with sugary rewards. As a result, pollination may fail - which is bad news for flowers and crops.

While honeybees - the most important pollinator of crops - seem particularly affected, other pollinators, such as bumble bees, suffer, too. Such insects visit flowers to forage for nectar and pollen as food for themselves and their young and then transfer the pollen from male parts of one flower to the female parts of another, fertilizing it in the process.

How do microplastics in our environment potentially harm pollination? Recent studies have shown that tiny pieces of plastics, which may originate from everyday products such as food packaging, disposable cutlery or plastic toys, can make bees more susceptible to bacteria and viruses.

When, say, a plastic water bottle ends up in a ditch or in a river, it disintegrates with the help of the sun, water, and wind into ever smaller pieces, which float in the air, seep into soils, settle on vegetation.

Other microplastics are made minuscule from the start such as glitter or microbeads in body scrubs. They may get washed off from our skin into wastewater, which is then used for irrigation of crops.

Once such microplastics are ingested or inhaled by bees, they can damage their guts and get into their brains, impacting memory and learning, research has shown. They can outright kill them, too. In addition, flowers may get literally clogged up with microplastics.