Bumble Bee (Photo : Facebook)
Ecologists at Kew Garden, London who have concerned about the steady decline in the number of bumble bee species in the country are all set to breathe a sigh of relief. According to a report published by Nature World News, Mark O'Neill of technology giant Tumbling Dice has pioneered a system of tags to attach to the thorax of the bees to enable ecologists to monitor their movements.
Though climate change has been considered the culprit for this decline for long, the real reason still eludes the scientists. Furthermore, the 2 inch long back packs can be superglues on the insect's body and have the capacity to last for its complete lifetime of three months as reported by Mirror. Moreover, the testing of the above mentioned equipment has been started at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, London.
The dwindling bee numbers is of a major concern for the humans too for they are vital to food production as they form the most important pollinating agents for the farmers. Furthermore, these 4.8x8 mm Radio Frequency Identification Tags (RFID) have a range of 2.5 meters and enable ecologists to track movement of insects from flowers to trees as per Nature World News. Moreover, the devices are a major development over the previous ones which were either heavy or had a short aerial range.
Tagging of the device to the bee involves cooling the animal to slow it down and then restraining it with pins which is attached to make sure the device maintains its place on the insects back. Further, the device is glued to the insect's thorax using epoxy resin. The technology has been put to trial in the compartment inside the glass house which has a bee proof screen with detection devices to identify individual insects.
These backpacks come as a ray of hope for the dwindling number of bumble bees not only in the United Kingdom but also worldwide.
