Thymol Affects Congruency Between Olfactory and Gustatory Stimuli in Bees.

Honey bees learn to associate sugars with odorants in controlled laboratory conditions and during foraging. The memory of these associations can be impaired after exposure to contaminants such as pesticides. The sub-lethal effects of acaricides such as 5-methyl-2-(propan-2-yl)-phenol (thymol) introduced into colonies to control varroa mites are of particular concern to beekeeping, due to detrimental effects of some acaricides on bees.