A beekeeper friend sent me a link about an experiment with honey bees, and caffeine spike sugar syrup. I had seen this link before, but did not follow it, I guess I was just too busy at the time. However, I followed it today. More interesting than I had thought. I tried to find the scientific paper that was listed at the end of the video, but it is a subscriber only article, and all I could see was the abstract. I then looked around again, Googled I mean, and found this link to the video, http://phys.org/news/2015-10-bees-resist-caffeinated-nectar.html, which includes more scientific info about the study. Interesting. I wonder what plants produce caffeine, besides teas and coffees? And which actually release caffeine via nectar? Or could other substances produced in nectar produce a similar reaction?
This is another reminder of how interesting these little insects are, and what new questions they can introduce us to.
Maybe it would help explain this behavior. Not completely serious here, but we do not know why they engage in this wash-boarding behavior. You never know.