Researchers investigating ways to enhance honeybee resilience to climate-related temperature stresses have found that dietary supplements may offer some benefits. A team led by Dr. Najmeh Sahebzadeh from the University of Zabol in Iran conducted laboratory experiments to assess how feeding worker bees a combination of probiotics and inulin—a plant-derived prebiotic—affected their ability to survive extreme temperatures.

The study revealed that bees given this supplemented diet endured extended periods of cold exposure better than those fed a standard sugar diet. However, when subjected to high temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius in controlled lab conditions, mortality rates were uniformly high across all groups. While none of the bees survived beyond a few days at this temperature, those receiving higher doses of the probiotic and prebiotic supplement showed marginally improved survival times compared to others.

These findings suggest that nutritional interventions may improve honeybee tolerance to cold stress, potentially offering a tool to mitigate some impacts of the ongoing climate crisis. At the same time, the limited effect at elevated temperatures indicates that supplementation alone may not be sufficient to protect bees against all climate change-related stresses. As global warming contributes to more frequent and intense temperature fluctuations, such strategies could form part of broader efforts to support declining pollinator populations essential to ecosystems and agriculture worldwide.