Are bees affected by inorganic fertilisers?

I recently read online some research that says bees can't recognise flowers that have been sprayed with inorganic fertiliser. The articles say inorganic fertilisers affect the electrical fields and make the bees blind to the flowers. The effect is supposed to last for about 20 minutes after spraying.

I thought it was odd, as you don't spray flowers with fertiliser, mostly it is added to soil and as slow-release granules, and sometimes it is a foliar spray.

I see very few bees in my garden, and mostly they just fly around looking and don't land on flowers. They seem to like Campanula, I saw one bee going from one flower to another. I have planted all kinds of flowers that bees are supposed to like.

Similar situation with hoverflies. My garden is always full of hoverflies, and occasionally I see one stopping on an Erigeron karvinskianus daisy, and there are lots of hoverfly pupae. But I see the hoverflies mostly just hovering around the flowers and not stopping. Again, my garden has loads of flowers that hoverflies like, everything is planted with pollinators in mind.

 

I'd be interested to see the article you read.

I'm not saying it's not true. Just that there's a lot of conflicting information floating around. It's always worth checking sources.

The question on my mind would be, how does this fertiliser affect local electrical fields in a any significant way, when compared with the chaotic symphony of electromagnetic fields that surround us today. The WiFi router, mobile phones, the HT ignition system of petrol cars going past, radio and TV signals, not to mention naturally occurring EM activity in the atmosphere and from space.

 

Could you please post a link to the article.

 

Fertilizers Can Alter Flowers’ Electric Fields, Deterring Pollinating Bees

 

Original paper can be found here Synthetic fertilizers alter floral biophysical cues and bumblebee foraging behavior

 

I had a read, and checked the source, the unfortunately named PNAS Nexus (say that out loud and see what it sounds like).

It appears to be a credible open source science platform, where the articles are peer reviewed.

I'd misunderstood the original post. I thought we were talking about electromagnet fields, but it seems we're talking about charge due to ionisation. I didn't even know bees could detect that, but I know some animals can and bees are quite sophisticated little creatures so I'm not surprised.

Fertilisers typically are salts of various minerals, and salts often have ionising properties, so I guess it makes sense.

 

Having read the paper thoughts are as follows: seems to have been a well constructed experimental design with controls and sufficient repeats to be able to do statistics.
They certainly measured an effect on the electrical field measured 5 cm from the plant and this appeared to affect the foraging behaviour of bumble bees adversely; this effect lasted for about 20 minutes, so not a permanent disruption to foraging behaviour.
They only tested bumble bees and cut lavender blossoms for foraging behaviour.
It is not clear how many pollinators actually use the electric field around the plant. Really needs a lot more work on other pollinators and flowers.
A lot of commercial spray systems actually charge the droplets so they get a better coating on the plant and less waste.
The paper is quite clear that they only looked at sprays not other methods of application. So the headline from the press release, from the University, is not actually right.
If concerned would suggest spray your foliar feeds in the evening and everything should be fine in the morning.

 

Bees Can Sense the Electric Fields of Flowers

 

I am sure it isn't my imagination, bees seem to frequent my garden more after rain, wind or storms. And after heavy rain everything seems to have grown a lot more, overnight.

 

I observed years ago that plants grow rapidly after a thunderstorm. I told an old gardener and he stifled a laugh. It was only years later that I read that lightning fixes nitrogen in the soil, so in effect the plants get a good feed and watering at the same time when it thunders.

As for the bees being more active, I don't know any science about that, but I'm going to guess they are making up for lost time after a storm. I have noticed when I grow nasturtium some years the bees zero in on that when it's chucking down. I put that down to the fact that nasturtium leaves act like big umbrellas, keeping the flowers underneath nice and dry, so the bees get the double advantage of not being rained on while they work, and the rain not washing the nectar away from the flowers.

 

Unfortunately that is behind a paywall.

 

I am not getting a paywall, but I did have to register with my email address to National Geographic.

 

Maybe the flowers that the bees are working on, on dry days are flattened or not giving nectar after heavy rain, so they have to go that bit further to find what they need.

 

You can use:

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Or:

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Section: "How to bypass paywalled articles using uBlock Origin"

Note: "hacks" is used in the original way, meaning "clever and imaginitive programming", rather than being anything to do with "hackers" (properly called "crackers", people gaining unauthorised access to computers and doing "dodgy things").

 

No won't let me in without an account. It asks for email address to be entered below, but there is where to enter it.