Tiny High-Tech Backpacks on Honey Bees May Save the Insects from Colony Collapse

Tiny sensors may just save bees. Intel and CSIRO have joined together to create tiny bee "backpacks" that will hopefully help researchers discover why bee populations are declining in Australia.

Honeybees pollinate about 33 percent of all human food sources. This includes vegetables, fruits, oils, nuts and seeds. Without bee populations, crops may be far less productive. This, in turn, may cause less food security and hurt agriculture.

So why are bee populations failing? It all has to do with something called colony collapse disorder (CCD). This occurs when the bees in a colony suddenly die, which is caused by a number of factors, including a bloodsucking mite called Varroa, pesticides and climate change.

Now, though, researchers are taking a closer look at what's affecting bees with the help of the tiny sensors placed on adult bees. A total of .1 inches in width and weighing just .0002 ounces, the sensors are gently glued to the back of honey bees. Data collection receptors are also built into hives.

"What we are gathering with the sensors is environmental information from where the bees have been," said Gary Fitt from Australia's national agency in an interview with AFP. "It tells us about their changes in behavior-how often and how long they're foraging, whether they're feeding, whether they're collecting pollen, what they're doing in the hives. We can then see if we can interpret those changes to tell us how they are responding to different stresses."

Hopefully, the new tiny sensors will allow researchers to understand what's killing honey bees. This is especially important as bee populations continue to decline worldwide.

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