Rapid methods for orally dosing adult honey bees, individually or in groups, without anaesthetic

Abstract

Methods are described for feeding honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) a dose of test compound in sugar syrup without anaesthesia. Bees could be fed individually at a rate similar to that in tests using CO₂ anaesthesia (300–400 bees per h with two operators). Feeding bees in groups of 10 was about four times faster than feeding them singly. Although bees fed in groups probably rarely all take equal volumes of syrup, results from three tests with methomyl showed that the LD₅₀ obtained with groups of 10 bees given 200 μ 1 did not differ significantly (P < 0.05) from that obtained with bees fed 20 μ 1 individually.

Keywords:

• Apis mellifera L.
• honey bees
• feeding systems
• anaesthesia
• methomyl