He remembers 13km of road

Worker bees are able to return to the nest from a distance of over 13km. A recent study in the UK has shown this.

Bee Bombus terrestris
(Photo: ulivoselvatico)

Scientists at the University of Newcastle, who took the experiment, captured 100 bees of a bee named Scientific Bombus terrestris. Then they mark them with numbers to identify.

These bees were brought to different areas around the northeast of England, and released to find their way home. Scientists have installed a webcam into the honeycomb to record the return of the experimented bees.

Initial results show that the journey of bees to the nest is completely different, but the number of bees released in the Heddon central garden - 13 km far from their nest is very safe.

Previous studies suggest that bees can return to the nest from a distance of 5 km. But with the results of this study, scientists have found a new milestone quite important in measuring memory and ability to find the way back of this insect.

Of course all of the bees were tested, only 20-30% were able to return to the nest, but according to Professor O'Neil is part of the research team, but we have to except for bees killed by insecticides or stabbed into the car windshield.

He added: " We believe that the environment greatly affects the ability of bees to find their way back. They used their observation ability, relying heavily on the horizon to find their way back. For noisy environments, this becomes much more difficult than when they are released into fresh gardens . "

Although bees play a very important role in pollinating many plants, creating food and fruit . But now in the United Kingdom, farmers have destroyed quite a lot of these insects.

Currently in England and Ireland there are about 25 species of bees, and 5 species are in need of protection.

Scientists hope to find the ideal environmental conditions for bees to live. They are very worried about this insect before the condition of houses being built rampant.