Check Out These Teeny Homing Devices for Bees
Coming soon to a field near you:
Uncovering clues to the cause of colony collapse disorder, the mysterious disappearance of honeybees from millions of hives over the last decade, is one of the primary motivations for Barlow’s research. In order to track bee activity throughout the day, she and her colleagues Bruce Pavlik, a fellow ecologist, and Mark O’Neill, a computer engineer, have developed a tiny homing device that’s light enough to fit on a bumblebee’s back without restricting its ability to buzz about, forage for nectar, and carry on with typical bee behavior. (They hope to develop a device small enough for honeybees next.)
The device, known as an RFID (radio frequency identification) tag is modeled after similar equipment used to track everything from wolves in Yellowstone to cattle in a Nebraska feedlot to merchandise in electronics stores. When the tag is close enough to an electronic detection device, it’s presence is registered – whether it’s somebody trying to steal an iPhone, or a steer being moved from one pasture to another.
But Barlow envisions using RFID tags to register individual bees as they arrive at different flowers for a drink, return back at the hive, or perhaps, as they go off somewhere to die. Gleaning such data from large numbers of bees and coupling it with environmental data, such as weather, incidence of pesticide use, vegetation type and so on, will allow scientists to paint a much more detailed picture of bee life, and how agriculture and other human activities may be impacting it.
Existing RFID tags were far too bulky for bees to fly around with, which is where O’Neill, co-owner of the environmental technology company Tumbling Dice, came in. He joined forces in 2014 with Barlow and Pavlik at the Kew Botanic Gardens in London to develop a tiny insect homing device. Barlow, now a researcher at the University of Utah, recently discussed the new technology and its potential applications with Modern Farmer.
Modern Farmer: Other scientists have attempted to put RFID tags on bees before. What’s different about your approach?
Sarah Barlow: Previous insect RFID tags have a very small range of about 1 centimeter, so the detector unit must be placed in the hive so the bees that are tagged will pass it as they enter or leave. There is a trade-off between the size of the tag and its range, and the previous technology – to be small enough and light enough to be carried by a bee – could only be detected within 1 centimeter. Those devices couldn’t tell you where the bees have been in the landscape, only whether they return to the hive or not.
MF: How big is the tag you’ve been working on and what is its range?
SB: These new tags are 7 by 2 millimeters and have a detection range of just over 1 meter, which constitutes a real breakthrough in radio technology. They weigh 80 milligrams, which is about half the weight of a typical bumblebee. That seems to be the threshold weight and size that bees can fly and forage normally with. We looked at the behavior of the bees within a controlled glasshouse to see whether or not they were capable of flying with the tag on their back. The next step will be to take the experiment out into the field. That will be the acid test.
Bee behavior at the landscape scale is currently not well understood because it’s very difficult to track the movements of tiny flying insects.
MF: And what do you hope to accomplish with these itty-bitty tags?
SB: The purpose was to develop a new tracking system that was able to track the movements of small-bodied insects such as bees at the landscape scale, which hasn’t been done before. By putting the detecting units within flowering patches in the landscape and then looking at the movement patterns of the bees, you can effectively build a map of where they have been. And that could help you determine whether or not they are affected by habitat fragmentation, for example. But you could apply the technology to studying many aspects of their behavior to better understand how bees are responding to differences in the environment, such as pesticides and diseases. Bee behavior at the landscape scale is currently not well understood because it’s very difficult to track the movements of tiny flying insects.
MF: How exactly does one attach an RFID tag to the body of a bee?
SB: You chill them for about 10 minutes which makes them docile. Then you pin the insect down so it can’t move around and you use superglue to attach the tag. They recover very quickly.
MF: And none of this causes harm to the bee?
SB: No, no. We monitored them for about six weeks with their tags in the glasshouse, and they foraged and behaved normally within the glasshouse.
MF: What’s next in terms of making this technology widely available to those studying the issues affecting bee populations around the world?
SB: This particular project is about validating the proof of concept with the technology, which we have achieved. The next step is that we need the funding to develop the tags to the next level. We want to take it into the field and apply it to the ecological studies we are interested in, as well as to further optimize the technology to the point where it can be used much more widely by other scientists.
The critical point in developing the tags is that they have to be inexpensive; cheap enough for scientists to buy them in bulk.
MF: I’m assuming you can’t get the tags back from the bees and reuse them, so I suppose you need to be able to mass produce the tags at a low cost.
SB: Exactly. The critical point in developing the tags is that they have to be inexpensive; cheap enough for scientists to buy them in bulk. Because in all likelihood they will not come back and will have to be considered expendable.
MF: As an ecologist, what’s your opinion on the cause of colony collapse disorder? There seems to be so many theories that have circulated over the last number of years.
SB: It’s horrific for beekeepers to see their colonies disappear in such a short space of time, and you’re right, there are a lot of theories about it. It’s not entirely clear, but there are three main threats to insect pollinator populations around the world, including honeybees. Those are: change in land use – so reductions in habitat and forage availability for bees; pesticides; and pests and disease. But really it’s the interplay and interaction of all those stresses. It’s really very complex.
MF: Hopefully having this new and improved way to get inside the lives of bees will help.
SB: That’s where the research requirements are currently, where our knowledge gaps are – the question of how the interactions between these stresses are affecting bee populations. That’s where we are working towards more understanding and ultimately toward getting that scientific information into policy.
Don’t miss more stories from #beeweek! »
Subscribe
0 Comments
Most Voted
