Researchers tracking bees in Australia have added an surprising skill to their résumés: bee barber.
A team from the Australian research agency CSIRO in Tasmania aims to track thousands of the insects by fitting them with tiny radio tags 2.5 millimetres square. The bees are first sedated by popping them briefly in the refrigerator, and the hairiest also have to be shaved before the tags will stick.
Once the bijou backpacks have been secured, the team are releasing the 5000 bees into the wild at a rate of 20 per day.
The tags alert the researchers when the bees pass checkpoints, allowing them to map the insects' behaviour.
"Bees are social insects that return to the same point and operate on a very predictable schedule. Any change in their behaviour indicates a change in their environment," says Paulo de Souza, who leads the project. The tags don't affect a bee's ability to fly and carry out its normal duties, he adds.
The researchers hope to improve pollination on farms and track the impact of agricultural pesticides on bees.
See more robobees in our gallery of flying robots and cyborgs inspired by insects.
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