Reacción a "Reaction to study concluding that glyphosate affects the thermoregulation of bumblebee colonies"

Since the beginning of the massive use of glyphosate as a herbicide that is harmless to wildlife, entomologists' reticence has been constant and, in view of what has been published recently, not without meaning. It is true that in tetrapods, as they lack the EPSPS-synthase enzyme and therefore show different routes in the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids than plants, glyphosate seems to have little or no toxicity for these organisms. However, in insects (especially pollinators that regularly frequent the vegetation treated with this product), the evidence of more or less severe damage to these animals is increasingly abundant and clear. 

This is alarming because of the harmful effects on these non-target organisms of agrochemical treatments, and the article in the journal Science is a further link in this chain of certainty regarding the toxicity of glyphosate on bees (in this case bumblebees).

The results of this work, which uses an appropriate methodology, show an "interference" of this herbicide in the cycle of bumblebee colonies, which, without being directly lethal, affects their thermoregulation and, therefore, the viability of the colony over time. The study is rigorous and, as I say, adds further evidence of the need to view biocides (glyphosate in particular, in this case) with the utmost caution and the need to extend studies on their environmental safety. 

Furthermore, the need to carry them out from a perspective that also includes invertebrate fauna, which is sometimes marginalised in studies on the safety and innocuousness of these products, is evident. Thus, the article by Weidenmüller et al. is current, relevant and its results will certainly be taken into account by science, adding to and reinforcing the evidence known to date.