From VOA Learning English, this is the Environment and Science Report.A new study says a widely-used insecticide is damaging wild bee populations. Wild bees are important, because they pollinate crops and wild plants.Environmentalists in the United States and Europe say chemicals called neonicotinoids are causing a drop in the number of bees.These insecticides are among the most commonly-used worldwide. Farmers often use seeds treated with the insecticides.The chemicals target insects that eat crops, and they do not spread beyond the field.But they do get into pollen and nectar, which is where the bees come into contact with them.Maj Rudlof is a researcher at Lund University in Sweden. She led the neonicotinoids study.She and other researchers studied bees in fields. Half of the fields were grown from seeds treated with neonicotinoids. The other half was grown with seeds that were not treated.She spoke about the results of the study in a video released by the journal Nature, which published it:
