The Impact of Environmental Factors and Pesticides on Bee Behavior

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Farm Animal Production".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 September 2025 | Viewed by 704

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Bees Breeding, Institute of Animal Husbandry and Breeding, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 38C Chelmonskiego St., 51-630 Wroclaw, Poland
Interests: pesticides; honey bee; bumblebees; electromagnetic field; biochemical indicators; behavior

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Bees, as key pollinators, play a crucial role in both the environment and agriculture. However, they are exposed to various stressors while performing their work. Successful pollination and species survival depend not only on the overall health of these organisms but also on their cognitive skills. Some bee species are social, and their behavior plays a key role in communication, colony organization, and social immunity. The decline in bee populations could have far-reaching consequences for global food production and biodiversity, making their protection particularly significant. Therefore, extensive studies on bee behavior are needed to understand how stressors affect their performance and survival.

This Special Issue focuses on the studies on factors that impact bee behavior, including learning ability, flight performance, foraging motivation, navigation skills, and more. Submissions on honeybees, bumblebees, as well as solitary and stingless bees are invited. Contributions on pesticides and environmental factors such as, for example, climate change, light pollution, invasive species, inter- and intraspecies competition, predators, and parasites, all of which could influence bee behavior, is equally encouraged.

All types of articles, such as original papers, statements, and reviews, will be considered for publication in this Special Issue.

Dr. Agnieszka Murawska
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • bee behavior
  • learning ability
  • cognitive skills
  • climate change
  • navigation skills
  • pesticides
  • flight performance
  • bumblebees
  • solitary bees
  • honeybee

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

11 pages, 1316 KiB  
Article
The Influence of an Electromagnetic Field at a Radiofrequency of 900 MHz on the Behavior of a Honey Bee
by Paweł Migdał, Mateusz Plotnik, Paweł Bieńkowski, Ewelina Berbeć, Krzysztof Latarowski, Natalia Białecka and Agnieszka Murawska
Agriculture 2025, 15(12), 1266; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture15121266 - 11 Jun 2025
Viewed by 507
Abstract
The development of wireless technology and the desire to improve communication electromagnetic fields (EMFs) of various frequencies have become common across the honey bee’s foraging landscape. There has been discussion for many years about the possible impact of electromagnetic fields on living organisms. [...] Read more.
The development of wireless technology and the desire to improve communication electromagnetic fields (EMFs) of various frequencies have become common across the honey bee’s foraging landscape. There has been discussion for many years about the possible impact of electromagnetic fields on living organisms. Artificial radio fields emit frequencies ranging from 100 kHz to 300 GHz. The presented research aimed to demonstrate the influence of the radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) with a frequency of 900 MHz on the behavior of honey bees in laboratory conditions. For this experiment, we used wooden cages to house honey bee workers immediately after they emerged. Bee workers were divided into control and experimental groups. Bees in the control group were not exposed to RF fields, while the experimental groups were exposed to 900 MHz electromagnetic fields of different intensities and durations of exposure. Bees’ behavior was analyzed with an appropriate computer program. Behavioral analysis of bees was performed immediately after exposure and seven days after exposure. Our research has shown that the radio field (900 MHz) affects the behavior of bees compared to the control group, although not all results are statistically significant. Significant effects were observed seven days after exposure in walking, flight, and individual contact. However, it is worth extending the study to include the impact of an RF-EMF on the expression of genes responsible for bee behavior. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impact of Environmental Factors and Pesticides on Bee Behavior)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop