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popsci_2013 00313.txt

#Pollinating Bees Are The Pesticide Deliverymen Of The Futurehere's another reason to pay attention to dwindling bee populations: Bees might be the organic pesticide spreaders of the future. While they go to work pollinating our crops bees could simultaneously bring natural microbial pest control agents to help those crops stave off disease. Using a technique called bee vectoring researchers force bees to walk through a pesticide before they can exit their hives coating them in a fungus bacterium or virus that will then be delivered in small amounts to the plants they already pollinate. That is if we can get enough bees to do it. America's honeybee population is dying. Scientists have suggested that this colony collapse disorder could be the result of long-term exposure to a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids but CBC News writes that the type of organic pesticides used in bee vectoring are not harmful to the bee (or us for that matter). For example honeybees or bumblebees can be used to carry natural pest killers like the fungus Beauveria bassiana which controls populations of aphids whiteflies termites and more. Save the bees from disease and they can in turn save our food. CBC News w

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