Honeybee Killer Found by Army and Entomologists - Finally

[ehrnst]

A fungus tag-teaming with a virus have apparently interacted to cause the problem, according to a paper by Army scientists in Maryland and bee experts in Montana in the online science journal PLoS One.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/science/07bees.html

[tabasco]

1. Now get to work on White Nose Syndrome!

Good job, scientist dudes and dudettes.

[surrealAmerican]

11. I thought they'd already identified the fungus ...

... that causes white nose. They just haven't been able to stop it.

[lunatica]

2. So if they find a cure or a way of controlling either the fungus or the virus

they can save the bees. Interesting. I assume the fungus would be the easier thing to control.

[sarge43]

3. If there's time,

the best way is find resistant strains of honey bees and there usually is in a species. However, the population is crashing; last year over a quarter of the honey bees in the US were lost to CCD and it's no better world wide.

Medicating tends to produce resistant strains in fungus and bacteria and virus shrug off meds. So find bees that shrug off the diseases.

If there's time .....

[backscatter712]

5. The article was suggesting malnutrition issues.

IIRC, the bees weren't getting proper nutrition, which made them vulnerable to the fungal and viral infections.

So. Bee vitamins?

[sarge43]

6. Might be (pardon the pun)

The bees that are used for commercial pollination are often limited to one kind of plant while the plant is in bloom, plus the stress of transportation.

The problem would be medicating them. Bee keeping is labor intensive. A commercial pollination yard has thousands of hives. Treating all of them is not only intensive also expensive in labor cost.

In short no silver bullet for this problem. It's complicated because bees are. Solving it will take time, money, labor and who's willing to do that for bugs that sting. :sarcasm: just in case.

[Motown_Johnny]

10. it sounds like you need to intermix some other plants with blooms

along with the crop to help supplement the bee's diet

[sarge43]

12. Yes, a mixed diet is always best.

The commercial orchards can take up hundreds of acres and bees won't travel any farther than they have to in order to forage. Five miles out is max.

So the mix would have to be planted right in the orchards. Ref my post #9.

During season they will be transported to different orchards and fields, but it may be the equivalent of going to MacD, Burger King and finishing at KFC, all right next door.

[Motown_Johnny]

13. I would suggest

leaving a variety of plants in pots on carts in the field and rotating them from time to time, forcing the bees to feed from different plants.


I know nothing about bee's diets but I have taken enough nutrition courses to understand how mutual supplementation works in humans. I assume a similar approach could be taken, depending on the crop that needs pollinating and the insect's nutritional needs.

[sarge43]

14. Or let wild flowers grow within the areas.

Our girls go for white and sweet clover, dandelions, wild asters, golden rod. Mono crops/plants make for an unhealthy environment for all of us.

[glitch]

8. Back to proper nutrition. Beekeepers have stopped feeding them HFCS, that's a start. nt

[sarge43]

9. HFCS is cheap compared to granulated sugar - nuff said

Most hobby/backyard keepers got the word. Again it's the large scale yards which do pollination that use it.

Quick profit, short term view - it's going to destroy us.

[glitch]

15. I think the big operators have finally clued in as well. Not much profit in dead bees.

Unless they just want to claim insurance and get out of the business.

[sarge43]

16. From your monitor

A partial list of food plants that either need or benefit from honey bee pollination. We need them a lot more they need us -- a sparse diet without them.

http://maarec.psu.edu/pdfs/Pollination_PM.pdf

[glitch]

4. How about what is weakening the bees' immune systems that makes them more susceptible to both? nt

[sarge43]

7. Good point

Could be that pesticides are, if not the only cause, certainly part of the problem. They can not be doing the girls any good and very possibly harming them in very subtle ways.