Bee … drug test findings
BEES react to cocaine by dancing madly, “talking” more and exaggerating, tests found.
And they struggle to cope when the Class A drug is withdrawn.
Dr Andrew Barron fed the insects cocaine for a week to test the effect on their brains and behaviour patterns.
He found bees that usually “tell” others of pollen using a “waggle dance” did so more frantically when given cocaine.
Dr Barron, of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, said: “When we withdrew the drug, we did a learning test and their performance just crashed.”
The findings show bees may be useful in substance abuse research.