Environmental Phenomenon: Human Impact on Pollinators

Activity Assignment Objective Suggested time2 2.a. Engage in a discussion about the bee study

that compared urban, suburban, and rural beepopulations

60-90 minutes

2.b. Explain the importance of bee habitat andsolutions for restoring degraded habitat2.c. Identify the different parts of a scientific study on bees and pesticides and explain Maryland’s commitment in restoring beehabitat2.d. Defend an argument using evidence about why robotic bees should or should not be usedas a solution to global bee decline

Activity 2.a.:

Watch the Ted Talk on the internet or listen to it on the podcast app. (see links below) While listening create visual notes about the phenomenon and what you learned. Then add your ideas to an online discussion post in Google Classroom. Be sure to write at least 3 comments in the discussion board.

Video: https://www.ted.com/talks/noah_wilson_rich_how_you_can_help_save_the_bees_one_hive_at_a_tim e/footnotes#t-621843

Podcast:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ted-talks-science-and- medicine/id470623801?i=1000440802925

**If you do not have access to internet to watch or listen to the podcast, you can read the transcribed copy found in the Activity 2 Folder, saved as: Ted Talk: How you can help save the bees transcript.

Google Classroom:

https://edu.google.com

Use your school email (lastnamefirstinitial####@students.wcboe.org then your password to log into school computers)

**If you do not have access to internet or the google classroom platform. Write down three things that surprised you or were interesting to you about the Ted Talk along with three questions you have after listening to the Ted Talk.

Activity 2.b.:

Read the excerpt below from the U.S. Forest Service.

Pollinator-Friendly Best Management Practices for Federal Lands On June 20, 2014, the White House released a “Presidential Memorandum—Creating a Federal Strategy To Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators” (PDF, 52 KB). The memo’s introduction states the following:

“Over the past few decades, there has been a significant loss of pollinators, including honey bees, native bees, birds, bats, and butterflies, from the environment. The problem is serious and requires immediate attention to ensure the sustainability of our food production systems, avoid additional economic impact on the agricultural sector, and protect the health of the environment.”

“Given the breadth, severity, and persistence of pollinator losses, it is critical to expand Federal efforts and take new steps to reverse pollinator losses and help restore populations to healthy levels.”

Further,

“Sec. 3. Increasing and Improving Pollinator Habitat

(e) The Departments of Agriculture and the Interior shall… develop best management practices for executive departments and agencies to enhance pollinator habitat on Federal lands.”

After reading this text excerpt and listening to the Ted Talk from activity 2.a., you should understand that habitat for bees is essential. Watch the video below. Then write three explanations on how humans in all areas of the world can restore bee habitat.

https://youtu.be/rU0CgWgVPyM

**If you do not have access to the video, or if you’d like another resource, read the related article: 9 Ways you can Help Bees and Other Pollinators, to answer the prompt below.

Humans can restore bee habitat by which will cause/provide .

Activity 2.c.

One human activity that is thought to negatively impact bee populations is the use of pesticides. Watch the video below and then answer the questions about the study.

Science Magazine: New tracking system could show how pesticides are harming bee colonies

https://youtu.be/U2GBYG5RwEI

**If you do not have access to internet, read the transcript of this video by opening the file: Science Mag Bee Pesticide Study Transcript

1. What was the study trying to test?

2. How did they keep track of the bees?

3. What did they find happened to the bees over time?

4. What happened in their second study when they tested bees in the wild who were exposed to pesticides?

5. What conclusions can we make about bees and pesticides? Be sure to explain your answer.

Attached is a fact sheet about the Pollinator Protection Act. Maryland is one of the states that enacted this Act in 2018. In the space below, summarize 1) The purpose of the Pollinator Protection Act and 2) Why it is beneficial for Maryland to be a part of this legislation.

Activity 2.d.:

Read the article from Newsela, Robotic bees could pollinate the world’s crops should real beesdisappear then write an argument using evidence to the prompt below.

Do you think we should rely on robotic bees for pollinating crops in the future? Why or why not? Be sure to provide evidence to support your argument.

Ted Talk: How you can help save the bees, one hive at a time00:04Pollinator decline is a grand challenge in the modern world. Of the 200,000 species of pollinators, honeybees are the most well-understood, partly because of our long history with them dating back 8,000 years ago to our cave drawings in what is now modern-day Spain. And yet we know that this indicator species is dying off.

00:26Last year alone, we lost 40 percent of all beehives in the United States. That number is even higher in areas with harsh winters, like here in Massachusetts, where we lost 47 percent of beehives in one year alone. Can you imagine if we lost half of our people last year? And if those were the food-producing people? It's untenable. And I predict that in 10 years, we will lose our bees. If not for the work of beekeepers replacing these dead beehives, we would be without foods that we rely upon: fruits, vegetables, crunchy almonds and nuts, tart apples, sour lemons. Even the food that our cattle rely upon to eat, hay and alfalfa -- gone, causing global hunger, economic collapse, a total moral crisis across earth.

01:22Now, I first started keeping bees here in Cape Cod right after I finished my doctorate in honeybee immunology.

01:37Imagine getting such a degree in a good economy -- and it was 2009: the Great Recession. And I was onto something. I knew that I could find out how to improve bee health. And so the community on Cape Cod here in Provincetown was ripe for citizen science, people looking for ways to get involved and to help. And so we met with people in coffee shops. A wonderful woman named Natalie got eight beehives at her home in Truro, and she introduced us to her friend Valerie, who let us set up 60 beehives at an abandoned tennis court on her property. And so we started testing vaccines for bees. We were starting to look at probiotics. We called it "bee yogurt" -- ways to make bees healthier. And our citizen science project started to take off.

02:26Meanwhile, back in my apartment here, I was a bit nervous about my landlord. I figured I should tell him what we were doing.

02:35I was terrified; I really thought I was going to get an eviction notice, which really was the last thing we needed, right? I must have caught him on a good day, though, because when I told him what we were doing and how we started our nonprofit urban beekeeping laboratory, he said, "That's great! Let's get a beehive in the back alley." I was shocked. I was completely surprised. I mean, instead of getting an eviction notice, we got another data point. And in the back alley of this image, what you see here, this hidden beehive -- that beehive produced more honey that first year than we have ever experienced in any beehive we had managed. It shifted our research perspective forever. It changed our research question away from "How do we save the dead and dying bees?" to "Where are bees doing best?" And we started to be able to put maps together, looking at all of these citizen science beehives from people who had beehives at home decks, gardens, business rooftops. We started to engage the public, and the more people who got these little data points, the more accurate our maps became.

03:36And so when you're sitting here thinking, "How can I get involved?" you might think about a story of my friend Fred, who's a commercial real estate developer. He was thinking the same thing. He was at a meeting, thinking about what he could do for tenant relations and sustainability at scale. And while he was having a tea break, he put honey into his tea

and noticed on the honey jar a message about corporate sustainability from the host company of that meeting. And it sparked an idea.

04:02He came back to his office. An email, a phone call later, and -- boom! -- we went national together. We put dozens of beehives on the rooftops of their skyscrapers across nine cities nationwide.

04:23Nine years later, we have raised over a million dollars for bee research. We have a thousand beehives as little data points across the country, 18 states and counting, where we have created paying jobs for local beekeepers, 65 of them, to manage beehives in their own communities, to connect with people, everyday people, who are now data points together making a difference.

04:49So in order to explain what's actually been saving bees, where they're thriving, I need to first tell you what's been killing them. The top three killers of bees are agricultural chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides, fungicides; diseases of bees, of which there are many; and habitat loss. So what we did is we looked on our maps and we identified areas where bees were thriving. This was mostly in cities, we found. Data are now showing that urban beehives produce more honey than rural beehives and suburban beehives. Urban beehives have a longer life span than rural and suburban beehives, and bees in the city are more biodiverse; there are more bee species in urban areas.

05:29Right? Why is this? That was our question. So we started with these three killers of bees, and we flipped it: Which of these is different in the cities?

05:40So the first one, pesticides. We partnered up with the Harvard School of Public Health. We shared our data with them. We collected samples from our citizen science beehives at people's homes and business rooftops. We looked at pesticide levels. We thought there would be less pesticides in areas where bees are doing better. That's not the case. So what we found here in our study is -- the orange bars are Boston, and we thought those bars would be the lowest, there would be the lowest levels of pesticides. And, in fact, there are the most pesticides in cities. So the pesticide hypothesis for what's saving bees -- less pesticides in cities -- is not it. And this is very typical of my life as a scientist. Anytime I've had a hypothesis, not only is it not supported, but the opposite is true.

06:25Which is still an interesting finding, right?

06:28We moved on. The disease hypothesis. We looked at diseases all over our beehives. And what we found in a similar study to this one with North Carolina State is: there's no difference between disease in bees in urban, suburban and rural areas. Diseases are everywhere; bees are sick and dying. In fact, there were more diseases of bees in cities. This was from Raleigh, North Carolina. So again, my hypothesis was not supported. The opposite was true. We're moving on.

06:55The habitat hypothesis. This said that areas where bees are thriving have a better habitat -- more flowers, right? But we didn't know how to test this. So I had a really interesting meeting. An idea sparked with my friend and colleague Anne

Madden, fellow TED speaker. We thought about genomics, kind of like AncestryDNA or 23andMe. Have you done these? You spit in a tube and you find out, "I'm German!"

07:21Well, we developed this for honey. So we have a sample of honey and we look at all the plant DNA, and we find out, "I'm sumac!"

07:29And that's what we found here in Provincetown. So for the first time ever, I'm able to report to you what type of honey is from right here in our own community. HoneyDNA, a genomics test. Spring honey in Provincetown is from privet.What's privet? Hedges. What's the message? Don't trim your hedges to save the bees.

07:50I know we're getting crunchy and it's controversial, so before you throw your tomatoes, we'll move to the summer honey, which is water lily honey. If you have honey from Provincetown right here in the summer, you're eating water lily juice; in the fall, sumac honey. We're learning about our food for the first time ever. And now we're able to report, if you need to do any city planning: What are good things to plant? What do we know the bees are going to that's good for your garden? For the first time ever for any community, we now know this answer.

08:19What's more interesting for us is deeper in the data. So, if you're from the Caribbean and you want to explore your heritage, Bahamian honey is from the laurel family, cinnamon and avocado flavors. But what's more interesting is 85 different plant species in one teaspoon of honey. That's the measure we want, the big data. Indian honey: that is oak. Every sample we've tested from India is oak, and that's 172 different flavors in one taste of Indian honey. Provincetown honey goes from 116 plants in the spring to over 200 plants in the summer. These are the numbers that we need to test the habitat hypothesis.

08:59In another citizen science approach, you find out about your food and we get some interesting data. We're finding out now that in rural areas, there are 150 plants on average in a sample of honey. That's a measure for rural. Suburban areas, what might you think? Do they have less or more plants in suburban areas with lawns that look nice for people but they're terrible for pollinators? Suburbs have very low plant diversity, so if you have a beautiful lawn, good for you, but you can do more. You can have a patch of your lawn that's a wildflower meadow to diversify your habitat, to improve pollinator health. Anybody can do this. Urban areas have the most habitat, best habitat, as you can see here: over 200 different plants. We have, for the first time ever, support for the habitat hypothesis.

09:48We also now know how we can work with cities. The City of Boston has eight times better habitat than its nearby suburbs. And so when we work with governments, we can scale this. You might think on my tombstone, it'll say, "Here lies Noah. Plant a flower." Right? I mean -- it's exhausting after all of this. But when we scale together, when we go to governments and city planners -- like in Boston, the honey is mostly linden trees, and we say, "If a dead tree needs to be replaced, consider linden." When we take this information to governments, we can do amazing things. This is a rooftop from Fred's company. We can plant those things on top of rooftops worldwide to start restoring habitat and securing food systems. We've worked with the World Bank and the presidential delegation from the country of Haiti. We've worked with wonderful graduate students at Yale University and Ethiopia. In these countries, we can add value to their honey by identifying what it is, but informing the people of what to plant to restore their habitat and secure their food systems.

10:46But what I think is even more important is when we think about natural disasters. For the first time, we now know how we can have a baseline measure of any habitat before it might be destroyed. Think about your hometown. What risks does the environment pose to it? This is how we're going to save Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. We now have a baseline measure of honey, honey DNA from before and after the storm. We started in Humacao. This is right where Hurricane Maria made landfall. And we know what plants to replace and in what quantity and where by triangulating honey DNA samples.

11:23You might even think about right here, the beautiful land that connected us, that primed us, all the citizen science to begin with, the erosion, the winter storms that are getting more violent every year. What are we going to do about this, our precious land? Well, looking at honey DNA, we can see what plants are good for pollinators that have deep roots, that can secure the land, and together, everybody can participate. And the solution fits in a teaspoon. If your hometown might get swept away or destroyed by a natural disaster, we now have a blueprint suspended in time for how to restore that on Earth, or perhaps even in a greenhouse on Mars.

12:05I know it sounds crazy, but think about this: a new Provincetown, a new hometown, a place that might be familiar that's also good for pollinators for a stable food system, when we're thinking about the future. Now, together, we know what's saving bees -- by planting diverse habitat. Now, together, we know how bees are going to save us -- by being barometers for environmental health, by being blueprints, sources of information, little data factories suspended in time.

12:39Thank you.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/05/150524-bees-pollinators-animals-science-gardens-plants.html

© 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, © 2015- 2020 National Geographic Partners, LLC. All rights reserved

W E I R D & W I L D

9 Ways You Can Help Bees and Other Pollinators At HomeThis week the White House released new strategies to boost the insects so crucial to our food supply. Here's how you can do your part to support pollinators at home.

B Y J E N N I F E R S . H O L L A N D , N A T I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

P U B L I S H E D M A Y 2 4 , 2 0 1 5

If you like to eat, you can thank i nsects —in particular, pollinators such as honeybees, which provide much of the U.S. food supply. Sadly, p ollinators in the United States have been in crisis for more than a decade.

Beekeepers continue to report major hive losses each year, while many native bees and other pollinating insects are likely in steep decline—for a host of reasons. This week the White House weighed in on how to make things better, releasing a new Nationa l Strateg y t o Promot e th e Healt h o f Hone y Bee s an d Othe r Pollinators . (Related: "O bam a Unveil s Pla n t o Reverse Alarming Decline of Honeybees .")

Meanwhile, are there things the rest of us can do to help relieve pollinators' plight?

Absolutely, says Ed Spevak, curator of invertebrates and director of the C enter for Native Pollinator Conservation at the St. Louis Zoo in Missouri. He talked to National Geographic about the best ways regular folks with lawns and gardens, wherever they live, can help the birds and the bees (and the butterflies).

Go Native

Choose native plants in a variety of shapes and colors to encourage diversity. Remember that native wildflowers will be better adapted to your climate than exotics. And one size doesn't fit all: There are over 4,000 bee species in North America (some 20,000 worldwide) ranging from two millimeters to an inch (2.5 centimeters) long, so blossoms should vary in species and size, too. (Read "Quest for a Superbee" in National Geographic magazine .)

Keep It Blooming

Among your native plants, make sure something is blooming each season (spring, summer, and fall). Some bee species are active all year, others only in April and May, still others in July and August, and all need to feed regardless of the date.

Save the Queen

Newly emerging bumblebee queens need spring-blooming flowers, shrubs, and trees. Bumblebees, unlike, honeybees, have an annual cycle. New queens are born in the fall, and after breeding they find a place to hibernate for the winter. When the insects emerge in spring, they need nectar and pollen sources—or they can't start their colonies. (See b eautiful, intimate portraits of bees .)

Plant Milkweed

Adding milkweed to your garden provides food for m onarch butterfly caterpillars, but don’t forget nectar sources for theadults, such as flowers that bloom in late summer. Adults get especially hungry in the fall as they head south to their overwintering sites in Mexico.

Save Money on Mulch

Leave a little bare ground. Most species of bees are solitary, and some 70 percent of them dig a nest in the ground to raise their young—something they can't do if mulch is in the way (R ea d mor e abou t creatin g a sustainabl e hom e an d garden .)

Offer Bee Real Estate

Install a bee block or bee hotel, which are available online or at some garden stores. (Or, b uild one yourself.) You could also drill holes of varying sizes in a dead tree that's still standing (if beetles haven't done it for you). This offers habitat to the many bee species that nest in pre-existing holes.

Make a Border

By bordering your fruits and vegetables with native flowers, you'll improve pollination of your crops and also support bees when the crops stop blooming. It will also attract and support other pollinators such as wasps and hover flies that control crop pests. (See N ational Geographic's list of the world's top 10 gardens.)

Go Easy on the Chemicals

Pesticides can affect more than pests. Adding plants that draw natural pest-eaters (see above) and "companion planting"— including plants that naturally repel pests, such as garlic for aphids and basil for tomatoes—are good strategies to reduce chemical needs, according to organic gardeners. Maintaining healthy soil to keep plants' immune systems strong can also help.

Get Involved

Learn more about organizations that support pollinators and their habitats, such as P ollinator Partnership or the H oneybee Health Coalition . You can also participate in citizen-science programs for pollinators such as B umble Bee Watch (Xerces

Society), T he Great Sunflower Project (San Francisco State University), F ourth of July Butterfly Count (North AmericanButterfly Association), and the M onarch Larva Monitoring Project (Monarch Watch).

Follow Jennifer S. Holland on Twitter.

New tracking system could show-at last-how pesticides are harming bee colonies

Video transcript

The humble bumble bee-fuzzy adorable and a vital player in our ecosystem, responsible for pollinating crops across the country. But what happens when critical pollinators come in contact with widely used pesticides? Researches set out to answer this question by testing the behavioral effects of a popular insecticide: imidacloprid, on colonies of bumble bees.

They chose bumblebees, which are much smaller than honeybee colonies, making it easier to observe individual bees. To track their behavior, each bee was outfitted with its own small, waterproof 2D barcode that would allow a robotic camera to record the movement of each bee individually.

The colonies were separated into different tracking arenas, each consisting of a nesting area and a foraging area. The bees were given access to nectar with varying concentrations of imidacloprid, similar to what they might ingest out in the wild.

The scientists used a camera mounted on a custom roboticchassis to periodically check in on each colony. Their findings were striking-within 24 hours, colonies that were exposed to the pesticide exhibited a range of behavior changes. The bees were lethargic and had fewer social interactions. The bees also foraged less and spread out from the center of the nest towards the periphery of the colony.

The researchers alsowanted to test the insecticides effects under more realistic conditions, so they set up 6 colonies outdoors. Each colony was given access to either pure nectar or nectar containing imidacloprid. The researchers measured the surface temperature of the colony, and the air temperature inside and outside the colony.

They found that colonies that had ingested the imidacloprid had trouble regulating the temperature of the nest, especially as temperatures outside began to dip. These colonies were also less likely to construct a protective wax canopy around the developing young than colonies that had eaten only pure nectar.

These behavioral changes may seem small, but when combined they can have drastic effects on the nest as a whole. Researchers believe that this study highlights the need for better understanding of how insecticides and other agricultural chemicals can negatively impact ecosystems.

90%

2016 Pollinator Protection Act (SB 198 / HB 211)FACT SHEET

Research confirms that toxic neonicotinoid pesticides (aka “neonics”) kill and harm bees and other pollinators, like butterflies and birds – posing a serious threat to our food supply, public health and environment.

MARYLAND BEES ARE DYING AT AN ALARMING RATE, AND THE STATE MUST ACT NOW.

In 2015, Maryland beekeepers lost a staggering 61 percent of their hives.

That’s about twice the national average and far more than is typical in a year.

• Since 2006, beekeepers have lost an average of 30 percent of their hives.1

• In 2014, the Task Force on Systemic Pesticides – a group of global, independent scientists studying the impact of pesticides – reviewed more than 1100 peer- reviewed studies and concluded that neonics are a key factor in bee declines and also harm other essential organisms. Their report also called for immediate regulatory action to restrict neonics.2

• In addition to killing bees outright, research shows that even low levels of these toxic pesticides cause serious harm by impairing bees’ ability to learn, find their way back to the hive, collect food, produce new queens and mount an effective immune response.

• Just one seed coated in neonics is enough to kill a song bird, according to the American Bird Conservancy.

• University of Minnesota research shows that butterfly larvae feeding on neonic- contaminated milkweed plants died soon thereafter, and neonic-treated plants in backyards near milkweed plants create serious potential risks to monarchs and other butterfly species.

WHY SHOULD WE CARE? NO BEES, NO FOOD.

• Our food supply depends on these pollinators. Honey bees and other pollinators are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat.

• Maryland honeybee pollination directly supports the agriculture industry in the state and is valued at more than $26 million, annually.

• Neonics harm aquatic life and have been linked to death of molting blue crabs.4

• A growing body of research shows that neonics threaten public health. Some neonics may affect the developing human nervous system,5 as well as potentially increase the risk of cancer, reproductive

harm and endocrine disruption.6 Bees pollinate

71 of the 100 crops that make up

of the world’s foo

d supply.3

We depend on bees for staple fruits and vegetables

THE PRESENCE OF NEONIC PESTICIDES ISPERVASIVE AND THEIR USE IS WIDESPREAD.

• Neonics are one of the most widely used class of insecticides – and that use continues to grow. Neonicotinoids and fipronil currently account for approximately one third (in monetary terms in 2010) of the world insecticide market (Simon-Delso et al. 2014) .

• Consumers often overuse neonics. One study found that products approved for home and garden use may be applied at up to 120 higher rates than what is approved for agricultural uses.

• Consumers may be unaware that many “bee friendly” garden plants and vegetable seedlings. sold at home garden centers have been pre-treated with these bee-killing pesticides. More than half of “bee-friendly” plants purchased at Home Depot, Walmart and Lowes stores in 18 cities across the US and Canada, including in Maryland, had levels of neonicotinoids, at sufficient levels to kill bees outright, according to 2014 recent Friends of the Earth study.

• A November 2015 United States Geological Survey study found residue from one of three types of neonics in a majority of bees sampled.7

• Another USGS study found 59 percent of all streams sampled nationwide had detectable levels of neonic contamination – including sampling from the Chesapeake Bay watershed.8

WHAT DOES THE RECENTLY PASSED POLLINATOR PROTECTION ACT DO FOR MARYLAND?

• The Pollinator Protection Act, which becomes effective in 2018, ensures that consumers could no longer purchase neonicotinoid pesticides. They would be available for sale ONLY to certified applicators, farmers or veterinarians.

• More than 20 states, municipalities, federal agencies and universities have taken steps to restrict neonicotinoids.

• Lower-toxicity alternatives exist that can replace neonics for common uses.• Marylanders overwhelmingly support these measures. In a 2015 survey, 78 percent of Maryland

voters favored restricting consumer use of this type of pesticides.

For more information on the bill – and for more research on how neonics harm bees and other pollinators – please visit

www.smartonpesticides.org

The Smart on Pesticides Maryland coalition works to protect Marylanders and the natural systems we depend upon from the toxic impacts of pesticides. The coalition includes more than 75 organizations, and institutions representing communities, businesses, health care providers, farmers, environmentalists, Waterkeepers, interfaith congregants as well as environmental justice, public health and wildlife advocates.

1 http://libcloud.s3.amazonaws.com/93/4b/3/4908/Bees_in_Trouble.pdf

2 http://www.tfsp.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/WIA-PR-REL.pdf3 http://libcloud.s3.amazonaws.com/93/4b/3/4908/Bees_in_Trouble.pdf4 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022098112001694

5 http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/press/news/1312176 http://docs.nrdc.org/health/files/hea_16011101a.pdf7 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S00489697153089378 http://toxics.usgs.gov/highlights/2015-08-18-national_neonics.html

Robotic bees could pollinate the world's crops should real bees disappearBy The Guardian, adapted by Newsela staff on 10.16.18 Word Count 711Level 1240L

DelFly, the robotic insect, floats in this photo. Photo by: MAVLab TU Delft

The future of the common bee is being threatened by modern farming methods and global climate change.

Delft University of Technology is a school in the Netherlands, a European country, where scientists have made their careers working on long-term solutions to some of the world's thorniest problems. Now, scientists at the university have come up with robotic bees as a possible solution to pollinate the world's crops.

The researchers work in the university's newly opened Robohouse, a center for Dutchexpertise. The researchers have reproduced some of the bee's complex wing motion patterns and the aerodynamic design of fruit flies. They believe they will be able to create swarms of bee-like drones to spread pollen between plants when the real-life insects have died away.

The Making Of A Robo-Bee

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.

The wings of the robotic DelFly beat 17 times per second. The movements generate the lift needed to keep the robot airborne, and its flight is controlled through small adjustments in their wing motion.

The researchers asked why a fly was so difficult to swat and tried to reproduce the insect's evasive movements. The robo-bees can hover on the spot, fly in any direction, and even flip 360 degrees from front-to-back or side-to-side. The robots' wings are made of a lightweight mylar film, the material used in space blankets, so they are safe for people to work around.

The new drones, which can travel up to 15 miles per hour, are also more efficient in their flight than those with helicopter-style blades, meaning their batteries can last longer. They can be fitted with spatial sensors so that they autonomously fly from plant to plant, avoiding each other and other obstacles as they go.

Previous attempts to perfect the technology at Harvard University in the United States and elsewhere have produced useful models. Those robots, however, have proven to be too fragile or unable to navigate around each other.

"We Are Not Trying To Copy Flies And Bees"

Matěj Karásek, a researcher working on the Dutch project, said, "The use we see for this is pollination in greenhouses. The bee is under threat due to our farming methods and we don't know what their future will be. This is one solution."

"We are not trying to copy flies and bees, but we are trying to learn from them," he said. "Physics limits how small normal drones can be."

The robotic insect has a 13-inch wingspan and weighs a little more than an ounce, making it 55 times the size of a fruit fly. It can also only fly for six minutes, or 0.6 miles on its current battery. The plan, though, according to the university, is to reduce the size down to that of the insects they are trying to emulate as they develop the robot.

Pesticides Are Threatening Bees

The Netherlands is one of the world's largest exporters of agricultural and food products. Bees are responsible for pollinating 80 percent of the edible crops grown in the country.

Yet of the 360 different species of bee in the Netherlands, about half of them are threatened. Globally, the dramatically falling number of pollinators in recent years has been blamed, in part, on the widespread use of chemical pesticides meant to protect crops from harmful insects.

It has recently been claimed that one popular pesticide could wipe out common bumblebee populations by preventing the formation of new colonies.

The chemical pesticide, thiamethoxam, is said to dramatically reduce egg-laying by queen bumblebees. Predictions based on a mathematical model have

suggested that this could result in the total collapse of local populations of the wild bees. In April of 2018, the European Union announced a ban that would begin by the end of the year, restricting the chemical's use in Europe to closed greenhouses.

The Technology Is Coming Soon

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.

Karásek told the Guardian newspaper, "I think within five to 10 years we will have the technology to make the drones much smaller and we could see them put to use in greenhouses."

The developers are working to find a company who will partner with them on the project. Delft University's Robohouse, which opened in the fall of 2018, has been established to bring the country's brightest engineering minds together with private companies.

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.