Between the destruction of open space and the rise of urban beekeeping , former rural area bee are finding themselves in the city a heap these days . Fortunately , the change of scenery might not be impacting their diets too much ; investigator say that city bee in the main stick to drinking flower nectar , even in the presence of spill sodium carbonate . Their subject field was published in theJournal of Urban Ecology .
Clint Penick is a biologist at NC State University . He ’s peculiarly interested in learning about how social insect like bees and ants adapt to novel environment or circumstances . In 2013 , Penick and his colleagues compile ants from the parks , pavement , and traffic medians of Manhattan to line up out what the ants were eating .
The answer , unsurprisingly , was food waste — or , more specifically , the remains ofjunk food . The half - eaten cheeseburgers of city dwellers are so plentiful and calorie - laden that the ants had turn away from their usual diet of all in bugs .
Would the same be true for urban bees ? The investigator adjudicate to find out . They collected honeybees from 39 settlement ( 24 belong to beekeepers , and 15 idle ) in Raleigh , North Carolina , and the surrounding region . They then tested the bees the same direction they ’d tested the ant : by await at stable isotopes in the bugs ’ bodies . Everything we eat leaves a chemical signature behind . food for thought made from sugar cane and from corn , including maize syrup , have a unique burden on a body ’s carbon degree . By depend at a bee ’s carbon-13 isotope , researcher could tell if that bee had been use up people food .
Overall , the bees appear to be sticking to a fairly natural dieting . “ Basically , bee are trust on peak in urban center and are not turning to human foods to supplement their dieting , ” Penicksaidin a pressure statement . “ This is in force news for urban beekeepers . The honey in their beehive is mostly coming from flower nectar and not old soda , which is what we primitively venture . ”
The researchers note that this study charter place in a mid - sized city and not , say , Manhattan , where the ants were tested . “ Even the most urban area of Raleigh have more than 50 percent open green space , ” Penick said . “ By comparison , the average site in New York City has only 10 per centum green space . So more work want to be done to evaluate bee diets in our largest city . ”
