Some urban bees may be helping humans recycle plastic by using the increasingly abundant waste material to build hives, a new study suggests.
The study reveals that these bees are adapting to their surroundings, using plastic bags and building sealants to help build their nests.
It is an important discovery because it shows bees' resourcefulness and flexibility in adapting to a human-dominated world, said lead author Scott MacIvor, a doctoral student at York University, Canada.
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"Plastic waste pervades the global landscape," said MacIvor.
Although researchers have shown adverse impacts of the material on species and the ecosystem, few scientists have observed insects adapting to a plastic-rich environment, he said.
"We found two solitary bee species using plastic in place of natural nest building materials, which suggests innovative use of common urban materials.
Figuring out that the bees were using plastics in place of natural materials took some detective work by University of Guelph's Andrew Moore.
Moore analysed a grey "goo" that MacIvor discovered in the nests of one kind of bee, Megachile campanulae, which uses plant resins to build its nests.
"Scott thought it might be chewing gum originally," Moore said.
M campanulae was occasionally replacing plant resins with polyurethane-based exterior building sealant, such as caulking, in its brood cells - created in a nest to rear larva, researchers said.
They also discovered another kind of bee, Megachile rotundata, an alfalfa leafcutter, was using pieces of polyethylene-based plastic bags to construct its brood cells.
The glossy plastic replaced almost one-quarter of the cut leaves normally used to build each cell.
Markings showed that the bees chewed the plastic differently than they did leaves, suggesting that the insects had not incidentally collected plastic.
"The plastic materials had been gathered by the bees, and then worked - chewed up and spit out like gum - to form something new that they could use," Moore said.
In both cases, larvae successfully developed from the plastic-lined nests. In fact, the bees emerged parasite-free, suggesting plastic nests may physically impede parasites, according to the study.
