Application of the Bumblebee Foraging Pheromone for Commercial Greenhouse Pollination
Lead Research Organisation:
Queen Mary University of London
Department Name: Sch of Biological and Chemical Sciences
Abstract
Almost 1 million bumblebee colonies are bought each year to pollinate greenhouse crops. However poor bee motivation often leads to reduced pollination success. Building on our results showing that artificial chemicals can be used to increase Bombus terrestris foraging activity in the laboratory, we will elucidate the optimum chemical blend and test its efficacy at increasing pollination levels and crop yield of a commercially important crop (tomatoes) in greenhouse conditions. Having established our artificial foraging recruitment pheromone effectively mimics the natural bumblebee system to communicate the presence of food outside the nest, we will develop a cost-effective automatic system to dispense pheromone into bumblebee nests at timed intervals. To increase global applicability of this innovative technology to maximise crop yields, we will determine the components of the recruitment pheromone of Bombus impatiens, the species used exclusively for greenhouse pollination in the USA.
Publications
Molet M
(2008)
Colony nutritional status modulates worker responses to foraging recruitment pheromone in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris
in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
Molet M
(2009)
Potential application of the bumblebee foraging recruitment pheromone for commercial greenhouse pollination
in Apidologie
Molet M
(2008)
How floral odours are learned inside the bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) nest
in Naturwissenschaften
Description | Grant ended 8 years ago. All findings were uploaded to NERC website then. Briefly, we found that the bumblebee foraging pheromone had an effect bee colony foraging activity, but not on tomato flower visitation or fruit set / seed set. |
Exploitation Route | n/a |
Sectors | Environment |