Indian Bees Fancy Coffee Bars, Ditch Flowers

By P. Vijian CHENNAI, Nov 30 (Bernama) -- It's a tale of honey bees, and flowers versus coffee cups in the temple city of Madurai in South India, where scientists are musing over bees' new behaviour. In an amazing finding, Indian ecologists discovered that bees prefer trendy coffee bars, instead of sucking droplets of nectar in flowers for their regular sugar dosage. Experts working at the Madurai Kamaraj University School of Biological Sciences, found this new habit among bees in urban and semi-urban areas -- where disposable coffee cups were widely used. Bees, according to their study, were addicted more to coffee cups, where sugar residuals are much higher. But the change in bees' behaviour is not a healthy trend, warn experts, as they could pose a threat to food security. "Bees are not pollinating enough, as they are frequently visiting coffee bars, so food security is now a question. "About 80 per cent of pollination is done by bees. This is a negative impact on agriculture," ecologist Dr S. Chandrasekaran told Bernama. The natural role of bees is vital as they pollinate most agriculture crops. A seven-member team that studied bee's habits for two years also found that over a 30-day period, nearly 25,000 bees were killed in coffee or juice bars, by customers or staff. This may jeopardise their mere existence or what scientists caution could lead to "colony collapse disorder" in the long term. -- BERNAMA