Walter Farina of Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina experimented training bees to seek out sunflowers more than other plants. He was successful in training the bees to travel to sunflowers and increased the production of seeds by 29 to 57%.

He was able to accomplish this by feeding the bees sunflower scented food in the nest. The team is developing other scents to encourage bees to pollinate a variety of crops such as almonds.

What is also important about the success of this experiment is that it further substantiates the fact that bees have long-term memory. Memory of any kind indicates a thinking process, showing us that even insects are smarter than most people give them credit for.