An Emerging Area of Significant Scientific Investigation
Click Here if you listened. We’d love to know what you think. There is even a spot for feedback! Read along below!
By: Ross Conrad
It is not a stretch to say that honey bees and other pollinators are critical to maintaining our global food production and preserving wildlife biodiversity. Pollinators are under severe stress from a variety of sources including changes in land use and farming practices, the magnification of climate extremes from greenhouse gas emissions, diseases, parasites, and chemical pollution. Environmental pollutants include heavy metals, pesticides, forever chemicals, and contamination from a threat that has become a global environmental concern: microplastics and nanoplastics. (Technically, microplastics are between 1-5 millimeters in size, while nanoplastics are smaller than 1 mm).
As the name suggests, microplastic, which includes plastic microfibers, are tiny pieces of plastic. While some microplastics are intentionally manufactured as microbeads and most often used in cosmetics, they are also used in other applications. Microplastic is also produced from the normal wear and tear, and breakdown of plastic packaging and plastic products. Synthetic clothing such as those made from polyester, nylon, acrylic and spandex (elastane) also are a major source of microplastic fibers. Published reviews of recent research on microplastic and their impact on honey bees note that microplastics are consistently found on and in adult bees bodies, in bee brood, honey, beeswax, and pollen (Gajger et al., 2026; Rodrigues et al., 2025; Gilani et al., 2025).
The urban/rural divide
Studies show that bee exposure to microplastic occurs on numerous fronts. Microplastic is known to become airborne easily and this is one of the ways it is believed to become quickly distributed throughout the landscape. (Wang et al., 2021; Schiano et al., 2024) In much the same way that they’re physiologically built to efficiently collect microscopic pollen particles, honey bees appear to readily pick up airborne microplastic particles during foraging excursions.
While microplastic contamination of honey bee colonies is found in both rural and urban environments, research suggest a greater prevalence for microplastic pollution effecting apiaries in urban areas where greater amounts of plastic waste is typically produced. (Altunışık et al., 2025; Rodrigues et al., 2024) The use of plastic in agriculture appears associated with the majority of microplastic found in hives located in rural landscapes.
Routes of exposure
Bee exposure to microplastic also occurs during water collection from contaminated aquatic sources. Additionally, bee contamination can occur from visiting plants and flowers that have microplastics on their surface, or from microplastic that has become incorporated into plant tissues from vegetal exposure to contaminated water and soil. Honey produced from microplastic contaminated nectar becomes an additional long-term source of microplastic exposure for the colony. Interestingly, it is primarily synthetic fibers, rather than particles, that are found in microplastic contaminated honey.
While plastics will break down into smaller and smaller pieces, they do not fully biodegrade. Due to this tendency to persist in whatever environment it finds itself in, microplastic accumulates in the tissues of exposed honey bees, as well as products of the hive. Ingested fibers become incorporated into the bee’s cuticle and other tissues and organs. Since bees are known to expel bodily toxins and “sweat” them out when they excrete beeswax, it is no surprise that microplastic appears to accumulate in beeswax to a greater extent than in honey (Gajger et al., 2026).
The growing concern over the impact of microplastics and nanoplastics on pollinators has been raised not only because microplastic can be directly contacted or ingested by bees, but also because microplastic often acts as a vector for co-contaminants. These include metals and chemical pollutants such as PFAS and other chemicals used in the manufacture of many plastics and are known to leach from the plastic into the surrounding environment. (Aurisano et al., 2021) This vector action is facilitated and made more efficient by the miniscule size of the plastic particles that greatly increase the material’s surface area and enhances exposure to chemical toxins. This includes phthalates that leach from plastic packaging that is used to bottle and store honey and other hive products.
Impacts on bee health
The impacts of microplastic exposure to honey bee health are varied. Microplastics have been found to impact the dynamic activity of gene expression in response to environmental cues, developmental stages, or disease states and reduce antioxidant enzyme activity that help bees deal with exposure to pesticides and other toxic compounds. Basically it screws bees up at a genetic level and compromises their immune system.
Microplastics have been documented to have a profoundly negative affect on the microbiome found in the honey bee digestive system. Additionally, when a colony’s normal microbiota profile is depleted after being treated with antibiotics to control foulbrood, they become much more sensitive to microplastic and the lethal effect of this synthetic particulate matter is amplified. (Wang et al., 2021)
There are nine primary bacterial species that inhabit the guts of healthy honey bees. These bacteria are mostly found in the hindgut and rectum. There are five species of bacteria that make up the core honey bee gut microbiome and are found in adult worker bees worldwide. These are Snodgrassella alvi, Gilliamella apicola, two species of Lactobacillus, and a Bifidobacterium. The other four species of bacteria primarily associated with the honey bee microbiome are Bartonella apis, Apibacter adventoris, Frischella perrara, and Acetobacteraceae, however these species are not always found in the honey bee digestive system (Raymann et al., 2018).
The negative impact on the digestive microflora in honey bees from antibiotics, microplastics and other stressors can be mitigated through the use of probiotic supplements (An et al., 2025). Unfortunately, most of the microbial supplements for honey bees available commercially, do not contain all the core bacterial species found in honey bees and often are composed of bacteria not usually found in the bees microbiome at all.
Additional effects of microplastic on bees includes behavioral changes and cognitive impairment such as reduced sucrose response, decreased olfactory learning, and impaired memory recall, all of which negatively impacts a workers foraging ability. Some of this may be due to the tendency for microplastic to accumulate in bee’s brains, which undermines neural signaling pathways and impacts the bee’s central nervous system (Pasquini et al., 2024; Gilani et al., 2025).
Synergistic reactions
As if all this wasn’t complicated enough, the effect of microplastic on bees can be amplified by multiple stressors that can have additive, synergistic, or antagonistic biological impacts, particularly when exposure is chronic and coincides with nutritional, thermal, or pathogen-related stress. Examples of this are when colonies are exposed to numerous types of microplastic at the same time, or when combinations of microplastic and other chemicals, pollutants and pesticides occur at the same time (Shen et al., 2023; Wu et al., 2026).
The damage microplastic causes increases when the immune system of an exposed honey bee is already under stress. This means that large migratory beekeeping operations are particularly vulnerable. It has been established that migratory colonies, providing commercial pollination services, are exposed to multiple stressors. These include diminished access to a diversity of forage, intensive pesticide exposure, and increased pathogen exposure, along with the stress of being transported, and suffer significantly decreased lifespans compared to stationary colonies as a result. (Simone-Finstrom et al., 2016) As the foraging force of a colony dies prematurely, younger nurse bees in the hive must accelerate their behavioral maturity in order to replace them. This in turn reduces the overall care provided to developing brood and initiates a demographic decline in population and colony health which in turn reduces the colony’s overwintering capacity.
Adding to this complexity is the finding that even our destabilization of the climate is making honey bee microplastic exposure worse. Elevated temperatures when combined with microplastic exposure, reduces survival. However, the data suggests that high humidity amplifies the negative impacts of microplastic ingestion on honey bee survival even more than ambient temperature (Tiritelli et al., 2026).
Human impacts
While the true extent of the harm honey bees experience from microplastic is insufficiently researched and understood, the same can be said for humans. One study just published in the September-October issue of the journal Neurotoxicology and Teratology, tested baby teeth from kids and found elevated levels of plasticizers and pesticides in the teeth of children with autism 95 percent of the time (Heilbrun et al., 2026).
I have previously written about the corporate development of lab-grown meat, precision-fermented vegetable protein, and synthetic honey. As this article was being finalized, I came across a nightmarish, dystopian paper where graduate and undergrad researchers at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, used 3-D printing to create vanilla-scented protein-rich edible cookies made from recycled plastic bottles and plant waste (Jayasekara et al., 2026). There appears to be no end to the insane actions we take stemming from the illusion that we are separate from the earth and the natural world, and we can manipulate and engineer it in any way we want.
While corporations continue to dream up new socially harmful ways to make profits supported by weak or nonexistent governmental regulation and oversight, science slowly unravels the questions around microplastics. Meanwhile, beekeepers can take preemptive action to decrease colony exposure to microplastic pollution. A good place to start is to avoid plastic hive components and use only beeswax foundation, wooden frames, wooden supers, and wood and metal covers and bottom boards. Cotton bee suits should be the fashion of the day, and glass honey containers with metal lids rather than plastic jars and lids, would all help to preserve the integrity of the honey harvest, the vitality of our colonies, and the health of us beekeepers and our families.
References
Altunışık, Abdullah, Damià Barcelò, Luca Gallitelli (2025) Pollination under attack: First insights from Türkiye Plain reveal microplastics in bees from both urban and rural areas, Ecological Indicators, 178:114077, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.114077
An, Tong, Wangjiang Feng, Han Li, Yanyan Wu, Pingli Dai, Yong-Jun Liu (2025) Combined effects of microplastics and flupyradifurone on gut microbiota and oxidative status of honeybees (Apis mellifera L.), Environmental Research, 270:121026, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2025.121026
Aurisano, Nicolò, Roland Weber, Peter Fantke (2021) Enabling a circular economy for chemicals in plastics, Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry, 31:100513, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsc.2021.100513
Gilani, Shavali P., Moradian, M.-h., Tajdar-oranj, B., Basaran, B., Peivasteh-roudsari, L., Javanmardi, F., Khodaei, S. M., & Mirza Alizadeh, A. (2025). Microplastics comprehensive review: Impact on honey bee, occurrence in honey and health risk evaluation. Journal of Applied Ecology, 62, 1772–1794. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.70030
Pasquini, Elisa, Federico Ferrante, Leonardo Passaponti, Francesco Saverio Pavone, Irene Costantini, David Baracchi (2024) Microplastics reach the brain and interfere with honey bee cognition, Science of The Total Environment, 912:169362, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.169362.
Gajger, I.T., Vlainic, J., Cvetkovikj, A. (2026) Disruption of antioxidant defense systems in honey bees and wild bees under environmental xenobiotic pressure, Antioxidants, 15(8):1016, https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox15081016
Heilbrun, L.P., Han, I., Rodriguez, A., Shay, L.A., Ruiz de Porras, D.G., et al. (2026) A pilot autism case-control study of pesticides and plasticizers in shed baby teeth, Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 117:107710. doi: 10.1016/j.ntt.2026.107710. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 42542255.
Jayasekara, S., Hou, I., Jayantha, B.S.K., Sheflin, E., Jayakody, L. (2026) Engineered yeast consortia for converting plastic and biomass-derived compounds into valuable food additives, Undergraduate and graduate research in biochemistry and chemical biology, Poster Board #1081, 4532754. https://acs.digitellinc.com/live/37/session/586399
Raymann, K. and Moran, N.A. (2018) The role of the gut microbiome in health and disease of adult honey bee workers, Current Opinion in Insect Science, Vol. 26: 97-104, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cois.2018.02.012
Rodrigues, K.F.S., Rani-Borges, B., Ando, R.A. et al. (2024) Presence of Microplastics in Workers of Apis mellifera (Linnaeus, 1758) in Different Landscapes in Brazil. Water Air Soil Pollut 235, 593. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-024-07395-9
Rodrigues, K.F.S., Carvalho, B.R.R., Contrera, F.A.L. et al. (2025) Bees and Microplastic Studies: A Systematic Review. Neotrop Entomol 54, 56, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13744-025-01268-4
Schiano, Marica Erminia, Luigi Jacopo D’Auria, Roberta D’Auria, Serenella Seccia, Giuseppe Rofrano, Daniel Signorelli, Donato Sansone, Emilio Caprio, Stefania Albrizio, Mariacristina Cocca, (2024) Microplastic contamination in the agri-food chain: The case of honeybees and beehive products, Science of The Total Environment, 948:174698, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.174698
Shen, Jie, Boying Liang, Hui Jin (2023) The impact of microplastics on insect physiology and the indication of hormesis, TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry, 165:117130, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2023.117130
Simone-Finstrom, M.; Li-Byarlay, H.; Huang, M.H.; Strand, M.K.; Rueppell, O.; Tarpy, D.R. (2016) Migratory Management and Environmental Conditions Affect Lifespan and Oxidative Stress in Honey Bees. Sci. Rep., 6, 32023
Tiritelli, R., Alexandra Dal Lago, Rosa Ranalli, Giovanni Cilia (2026) The humidity is what really gets bees: The impact of thermal stress and microplastics ingestion on the survival of Apis mellifera ligustica (Spinola, 1806), Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology, 124:105046, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.etap.2026.105046
Wang, Y., Huang, J., Zhu, F. et al. (2021) Airborne Microplastics: A Review on the Occurrence, Migration and Risks to Humans. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 107, 657–664. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-021-03180-0
Kai Wang, Jiahuan Li, Liuwei Zhao, Xiyan Mu, Chen Wang, Miao Wang, Xiaofeng Xue, Suzhen Qi, Liming Wu (2021) Gut microbiota protects honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) against polystyrene microplastics exposure risks, Journal of Hazardous Materials, 402:123828, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.123828
Yiqing Wu, Lina Qin, Yimeng Zhang, Yifan Jia, Yaoyang Lü, Nianlong Wang, Hao Zheng, Liang Li, Zijing Zhang (2026) Co-exposure to polystyrene microplastics and glyphosate induces gut microbiota dysbiosis and cognitive impairment in honeybees, Journal of Hazardous Materials, 507:141796, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2026.141796
