The Buzz About Bees
Luring Varroa Mites To Their Doom
July 13, 2009
In nature, Varroa mites rely on natural chemical attractants called semiochemicals to locate�and then feed on�the bloodlike hemolymph of both adult honey bees and their brood.
At the Agricultural Research Service's Chemistry Research Unit in Gainesville, research leader Peter Teal and colleagues are testing a bait-and-kill approach using sticky boards and semiochemicals. In tests, 35 to 50% of mites have found the lures more attractive than actual bees and have dropped off the bees to become trapped on the sticky boards. 60% of free-roaming mites prefer the lure to the bees.
The researchers hope ARS�s patenting of the Varroa attractants will encourage an industrial partner to develop the technology further for use by beekeepers as both a monitoring tool and an alternative to chemical controls.
Click here to read more about the research at the USDA's website.
Breeding a Better Bee
November 6, 2008
In the past year alone, nearly 36 percent of all Canada�s honeybees died over winter, more than twice the normal mortality rate of 15 percent. The trend in British Columbia is no less severe, with select geographic areas such as Vancouver Island and the Peace River District suffering far greater losses.
So why are the number of bees dropping at such an alarming rate? It seems that the mites and bacteria, which have plagued them for years, are becoming increasingly resistant to traditional treatments such miticides and antibiotics. The bees are unable to defend
themselves, and those without natural genetic resistance inevitably die.
But a new Genome BC research project will soon put advanced genomics tools into the hands of bee breeders, enabling them select only the strongest, most resistant bees for breeding programs.
Click here to read more about Apis mellifera Proteomics of Innate reSistance (APIS).
Bees Detect Disease and Fertility
November 6, 2008
Blowing into a glass bubble that holds buzzing bees sounds a little weird. But, according to Portuguese artist Susana Soares, doing so could help detect disease and monitor fertility cycles.
Click here to read the full story.
Bees Can Count
September 29, 2008
Honeybees are clever little creatures. They can form abstract concepts, such as symmetry versus asymmetry, and they use symbolic language � the celebrated waggle dance � to direct their hivemates to flower patches. New reports suggest that they can also communicate across species, and can count � up to a point.
Click here to read about bilingual bees and their ability to count.
EPA Approves Another Bee-Killing Pesticide
September 26, 2008
The latest Bayer pesticide called "Movento" is a new class of pesticides called lipid biosynthesis inhibitors that interfere with nerve transmissions. That means honey bees and other pollinators will be trying to survive in crops contaminated by not only nicotine-based pesticides, but by the new Movento. Its 13-page warning label says Movento is toxic to honey bee larvae, either directly upon contact or indirectly from exposure to pollen and nectar brought back to hives by adult bees that are contaminated by Movento.
Click here to read more.
EPA Sued Over Honeybee Deaths
August 19, 2008
WASHINGTON - August 18 - The Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit today to uncover critical information that the US government is withholding about the risks posed by pesticides to honey bees. NRDC legal experts and a leading bee researcher are convinced that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has evidence of connections between pesticides and the mysterious honey bee die-offs reported across the country. The phenomenon has come to be called �colony collapse disorder,� or CCD, and it is already proving to have disastrous consequences for American agriculture and the $15 billion worth of crops pollinated by bees every year.
EPA has failed to respond to NRDC�s Freedom of Information Act request for agency records concerning the toxicity of pesticides to bees, forcing the legal action.
Click here to read the full story.
Mysterious Bee Disorder Could Sting at the Supermarket
June 29, 2008
WASHINGTON, DC, � Honeybees are vanishing at alarming rates across the United States and researchers are struggling to pinpoint the exact cause of the decline, experts told a Congressional panel Thursday.
U.S. beekeepers have lost a record 36 percent of their colonies this year, about twice the amount lost during a typical winter, and they warn that the mysterious disorder afflicting the bees could have serious environmental and economic consequences.
"This is more than just a beekeeping problem," said David Mendes, vice president of the American Beekeeping Federation. "There is something in the environment that is making our bees sick."
It is not just the $15 billion honeybee industry that is at risk, the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture was told. A third of U.S. crops, including most fruits and vegetables, rely on the commercial bees for pollination.
Food prices, already rising due to high fuel prices and weeks of Midwest floods, are likely to rise even higher with the scarcity of healthy bees.
Click here to read full story.
Germany bans chemicals linked to honeybee devastation
May 27, 2008
Germany has banned a family of pesticides that are blamed for the deaths of millions of honeybees. The German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) has suspended the registration for eight pesticide seed treatment products used in rapeseed oil and sweetcorn.
The move follows reports from German beekeepers in the Baden-W�rttemberg region that two thirds of their bees died earlier this month following the application of a pesticide called clothianidin, a neonicotinoid pesticide.
Click here to read the full story.
H�agen-Dazs Loves Honey Bees� campaign
February 20, 2008
H�agen-Dazs, which is a brand owned by Nestle S.A. of Vevey, Switzerland, has launched a national campaign to create awareness for the plight of the honey bee. Nearly 40 percent of H�agen-Dazs brand ice cream flavors are linked to fruits and nuts pollinated by bees.
As part of the �H�agen-Dazs Loves Honey Bees� campaign, the company created a new flavor of ice cream, Vanilla Honey Bee; committed a total of $250,000 for bee research to UC Davis and Pennsylvania State University; formed a seven-member scientific advisory board; and launched a Web site to offer more information on the �unstung heroes.�
Click here for more information.
Industrial Pheromone Tricks Bees into Collecting More Pollen
December 20, 2007
And now for the Next Installment of Industrial Strength Beekeeping: A steroid-laced tool.
A brand new pollination aide has been released just in time for the multi-million dollar almond bloom in February. Phero-tech, an agricultural products company in Canada, working with researchers from Texas A&M, have developed a synthetic honey bee pheromone that can be used by beekeepers to boost the pollinating activity of their bees.
To read the full story, click here.
Honey proves a better option for childhood cough than OTCs
December 6, 2007
A new study by a Penn State College of Medicine research team found that honey may offer parents an effective and safe alternative. The study found that a small dose of buckwheat honey given before bedtime provided better relief of nighttime cough and sleep difficulty in children than no treatment or dextromethorphan (DM), a cough suppressant found in many over-the-counter cold medications.
Honey did a better job reducing the severity, frequency and bothersome nature of nighttime cough from upper respiratory infection than DM or no treatment. Honey also showed a positive effect on the sleep quality of both the coughing child and the child�s parents. DM was not significantly better at alleviating symptoms than no treatment.
To read the full story, click here.
Honeybees and the Internet: Bees can teach computer programmers a lesson
November 20, 2007
Honeybees want to make honey, while internet host providers want to make money. And the rhyme is not the only thing to link honeybees and internet host providers, who operate vast warehouses full of server computers on behalf of their customers. Sunil Nakrani of Oxford University and Craig Tovey of the Georgia Institute of Technology, in Atlanta, have recently developed what they believe is an efficient way of organizing internet servers, by mimicking the behavior of honeybee colonies.
To read the full story, click here.
NAPPC and Burt's Bees: Partnering for Honeybee Health
November 6, 2007
The mysterious disappearance of bees, called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), is a growing threat to honeybees, the mainstay of pollination services in agriculture. The North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC), a tri-national coalition dedicated to promoting the health of all pollinators and a project of the Pollinator Partnership, is teaming up with bee-friendly, natural personal care company Burt�s Bees to address this environmental issue. Together, they are spearheading a campaign led by Burt�s Bees co-founder Burt Shavitz that will raise consumer awareness through public service announcement distribution, online marketing and consumer sampling efforts. NAPPC and Burt�s Bees will continue their partnership through research funding and a heightened awareness push later this year.
For more information, click here.
Silence of the Bees
October 30, 2007
Silence of the Bees, a film produced by PBS Nature, is the first in-depth look at the search to uncover what is killing the honeybee. The filmmakers of Silence of the Bees take viewers around the world to the sites of fallen hives, to high-tech labs, where scientists race to uncover clues, and even deep inside honeybee colonies. Silence of the Bees is the story of a riveting, ongoing investigation to save honeybees from dying out. The film goes beyond the unsolved mystery to tell the story of the honeybee itself, its invaluable impact on our diets and takes a look at what's at stake if honeybees disappear. Silence of the Bees explores the complex world of the honeybee in crisis and instills in viewers a sense of urgency to learn ways to help these extraordinary animals.
To read more about the plight of honeybees and what you can do to help click here. An eight-minute podcast is also available for viewing here.
What's With The Bees?
October 30, 2007
A segment of the September 28, 2007 CBS news magazine 60 minutes featured honeybees. Beekeepers have lost 90 percent of their hives to a mysterious disorder. Because honeybees help produce a third of the foods we eat, the loss could have severe consequences. Steve Kroft reports.
Click here to watch the video.
Oil Spill Clean-up with Beeswax
September 19, 2007
A product using NASA technology is available to consumers and industry that enables them to safely and permanently clean petroleum-based pollutants from the water. It is almost alchemical in its perfection, as it is comprised of beeswax microcapsules that act as a food source that stimulates the indigenous microbes to consume the oil.
Read the full story here.
Genetic Survey Finds Association Between CCD and Virus
September 10, 2007
WASHINGTON, Sept. 6�A team led by scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Pennsylvania State University (PSU), and Columbia University (CU) has found an association between colony collapse disorder (CCD) in honey bees and a honey bee virus called Israeli acute paralysis virus, according to a paper published in the journal Science this week.
To read the full story, click here.
Archaeologists Discover Ancient Beehives in Israel
September 7, 2007
Archaeologists digging in northern Israel have discovered evidence of a 3,000-year-old beekeeping industry, including remnants of ancient honeycombs, beeswax and what they believe are the oldest intact beehives ever found.
Click here to read the full story.
Queen Bees "Brainwash" Workers With Chemicals
July 19, 2007
A new study suggests the domineering matriarch regulates her daughters' brain activity to ensure her own survival.
"This is the first demonstration of [the queen's] pheromones acting directly on the brain," said study co-author Alison Mercer, a zoologist from the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. "The fact that it's affecting the learning abilities of the young bees is unexpected."
Click here to read full story.
An answer to the mystery of wanton queen honeybees:
Promiscuity produces more productive colonies
July 19, 2007
Why do queen honeybees mate with dozens of males? Does their extreme promiscuity, perhaps, serve a purpose?
An answer to this age-old mystery is proposed in the July 20 issue of Science magazine by Cornell scientists: Promiscuous queens, they suggest, produce genetically diverse colonies that are far more productive and hardy than genetically uniform colonies produced by monogamous queens.
Click here to read full story.
USDA Announces Colony Collapse Disorder Research Action Plan
July 17, 2007
U.S. Department of Agriculture Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics Gale Buchanan announced that USDA researchers have finalized an action plan for dealing with colony collapse disorder (CCD) of honey bees.
The action plan coordinates the federal strategy in response to CCD. It addresses four main components: (1) survey and data collection needs; (2) analysis of samples to determine the prevalence of various pests and pathogens, exposure to pesticides, or other unusual factors; (3) controlled experiments to carefully analyze the potential causes of CCD; and (4) developing new methods to improve the general health of bees to reduce their susceptibility to CCD and other disorders.
Click here to read the full story.
House Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans subcommittee explores ramifications of honeybee decline
July 05, 2007
Witnesses appearing before the oversight committee were scheduled to discuss �the severity, causes and ramifications of the decline, as well as make some recommendations for congressional action,� according to a press release from the subcommittee. The subcommittee press release indicated that beekeepers in the nation have reported the loss of more than one-quarter of the nation�s 2.4 million bee colonies, a figure that is �nearly five times the normal annual loss,� according to the press release.
Click here to read the full story.
Honeybee colonies unwittingly invite destruction from invasive beetles
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
The scenario is relatively straightforward. When a beehive undergoes even the smallest amount of stress � such as inclement weather or a lack of pollen in the area � the bees release a pheromone to spread the word in the hive that tough times may be ahead.
The problem is that the small hive beetle, an invasive species from Africa, is strongly attracted to the pheromone. The insect is actually 100 times more sensitive to the chemical than the bees themselves.
Click here to read the full story
Wild bees make honeybees better pollinators
Sunday, May 26, 2007
When honeybees interact with wild native bees, they are up to five times more efficient in pollinating sunflowers than when native bees are not present, according to a new study by a pair of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and UC Davis.
Click here to read full story.
A Single Gene Coordinates the Social Life of Honeybees
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Students of the evolution of social behavior got a big boost with the publication of the newly sequenced honeybee genome in October 2006. The honeybee (Apis mellifera) belongs to the rarified cadre of insects that pool resources, divide tasks, and communicate with each other in highly structured colonies. Understanding how this advanced state of organization evolved from a solitary lifestyle has been an enduring question in biology.
In a new study, Mindy Nelson, Kate Ihle, Gro Amdam, and colleagues reveal one possible path to community by showing that a single gene controls multiple traits related to honeybee sociability.
Click here to read the full story
PLEASE MENTION THE OPEN-ACCESS JOURNAL PLoS BIOLOGY (www.plosbiology.org) AS THE SOURCE FOR THESE ARTICLES AND PROVIDE A LINK TO THE FREELY-AVAILABLE TEXT. THANK YOU.
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) Working Group
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
During 2006, an alarming number of honey bee colonies began to die across the continental United States. Subsequent investigations suggest these outbreaks of unexplained colony collapse were experienced by beekeepers for at least the last two years. Reports of similar die offs are documented in beekeeping literature, with outbreaks possibly occurring as long ago as 1896. The current phenomenon, without a recognizable underlying cause, has been tentatively termed �Colony Collapse Disorder� (CCD), and threatens the pollination industry and production of commercial honey in the United States.
To better understand the cause(s) of this disease and with the hope of eventually identifying strategies to prevent further losses, a group of researchers, extension agents, and regulatory officials was formed. This group represents a diverse number of institutions including Bee Alert Technology, Inc. (a bee technology transfer company affiliated with the University of Montana), The Pennsylvania State University, the USDA/ARS, the Florida Department of Agriculture, and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
Broadly this group has identified its mandate as: �Exploring the cause or causes of honey bee colony collapse and finding appropriate strategies to reduce colony loss in the future�.
Click here for the most current CCD information from MAAREC's web site.
Honey bee die-off alarms keepers, growers and researchers
Monday, January 29, 2007
An alarming die-off of honey bees has beekeepers fighting for commercial survival and crop growers wondering whether bees will be available to pollinate their crops this spring and summer.
Researchers are scrambling to find answers to what's causing an affliction recently named Colony Collapse Disorder, which has decimated commercial beekeeping operations in Pennsylvania and across the country.
"During the last three months of 2006, we began to receive reports from commercial beekeepers of an alarming number of honey bee colonies dying in the eastern United States," said Maryann Frazier, apiculture extension associate in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. "Since the beginning of the year, beekeepers from all over the country have been reporting unprecedented losses.Click here for full story
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