USDA
Aug. 27, 2003
The Buzz on Bees
The Buzz on Bees: The Effects of Nicotine on the Consumption of Alcohol by the Apis mellifera
Russell Thomas Burrows, 13, San Antonio, Texas
Animal Planet "Emergency Vet" Award, Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge, 2002
Project background: Russell selected this topic after hearing a radio show about a study to determine whether nicotine acts as an alcohol stimulant in humans and other small mammals. This study related to Russell’s previous science project, which tested Apis mellifera (honeybees) response to alcohol after consuming alcohol-aversive products. Russell designed a second-year study to determine whether nicotine would affect honeybees' alcohol consumption. If Russell could prove that nicotine is a stimulant in honeybees, he speculated that honeybees could be used as inexpensive test subjects in medical and pharmaceutical studies, instead of mammals.
Tactics and results: Russell captured the honeybees and restricted their food consumption for 24 hours prior to testing. He then administered one milliliter of nicotine to some of the bees and nothing at all to others, after which all the bees were fed an ethanol-sucrose solution for 5 seconds at 5-minute intervals until they would no longer drink.
Russell concluded that nicotine does increase bee’s consumption of alcohol. He believes further ethanol studies would be valuable to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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