In this section
@article{Zhu:2026:10.1098/rsos.260148,
author = {Zhu, T and Graystock, P and Gill, R},
doi = {10.1098/rsos.260148},
journal = {Royal Society Open Science},
title = {Can near-infrared exposure help mitigate pesticide-impaired thermoregulation in adult bees?},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.260148},
volume = {13},
year = {2026}
}
TY - JOUR
AB - Exposure to pesticides may place the process of animal thermoregulation at risk, with impacts on organism fitness and function across landscapes. Quantifying such impacts whilst finding mitigative solutions is thus important especially given pesticide applications are forecast to continue across changing thermal landscapes. Here, we expose an important insect pollinator - bumblebees - to a cholinergic pesticide (neonicotinoid) and characterise the impact on adult body temperature. We further investigate how near infrared (NIR; 660 or 850 nm) mediates this pesticide effect using three exposure durations (5, 10 or 20 minutes per hour). Held at 18oC ambient, pesticide only exposed bees exhibited a steep body temperature drop (nearly 8oC) over the 73hr assay (relative to control bees that maintained their body at ~30oC). Promisingly, for pesticide and NIR exposed bees, 660 nm for 5 minutes more than halved the rate of body temperature decrease (relative to pesticide only bees), and intriguingly this counter effect lessened with increased NIR exposure time. Additionally, 850 nm for 20 mins may also alleviate body temperature decline by nearly 40%. Our study reports a mechanism by which pesticides threaten the critical functioning of a non-target organism and provides a potential therapy worthy of further investigation.
AU - Zhu,T
AU - Graystock,P
AU - Gill,R
DO - 10.1098/rsos.260148
PY - 2026///
SN - 2054-5703
TI - Can near-infrared exposure help mitigate pesticide-impaired thermoregulation in adult bees?
T2 - Royal Society Open Science
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.260148
VL - 13
ER -
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