>However, the amount of HMF that can be found in homemade syrups, which increases with temperature and acidity, can be much higher and can cause significant bee
 mortality.


Other observations from the study:

>Feeding bees with a sugar syrup containing an HMF concentration similar to that obtained after boiling an acidic solution for a few minutes (i.e., 10,000 mg/L of HMF) caused a strong significant reduction in the lifespan of bees; indeed, 100% of mortality was recorded after only 14 days, while more than 85% of control bees were still alive at the same date.  


>Since acidification of sugar syrups appears to be critical for bee survival, and the purpose of this treatment is to obtain the inversion of disaccharide sugars into monosaccharides, we tested if feeding bees with a sucrose solution instead of glucose and fructose influences their survival. We found that bees fed with sucrose syrup 
 ......had a longer survival than bees fed with a 1:1:1 water, glucose, and fructose solution. 


Bill Hesbach
Cheshire CT

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