Glyphosate weedkiller impairs learning and memory in bumblebees

Bumblebees exposed to glyphosate performed worse successful tests that required them to retrieve which colours were linked to rewards

Environment 21 October 2022

By Gary Hartley

A buff-tailed bumblebee

Ed Brown Wildlife/Alamy

Bumblebees exposed to the world’s astir fashionable benignant of weedkiller recovered it harder to larn and retrieve colours linked to rewards – which could undermine their quality to find nutrient for the colony.

Marjo Helander astatine the University of Turku successful Finland and her colleagues investigated however glyphosate, successful this lawsuit successful the herbicide Roundup Gold, affected buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) successful colour-based learning and representation tests.

Over 5 rounds, bees chose betwixt different-coloured artificial flowers, 5 containing a sweetener reward and 5 a bad-tasting quinine solution.

Unexposed …