From: The Telegraph
By Louise Gray
Scientists have discovered bees not only bite enemies that are too small to sting, but paralyse their victims with a snake-like venom.
The insects use their tiny mandibles to bite animals that are too small to sting, like the wax moth and the parasitic varroa mite.
Like the snake bite, the bite contains a natural anaesthetic to paralyse the victim so the pest can be dragged out of the hive.
Leave a Comment October 17, 2012
From: Lovely County Citizen
By Jennifer Jackson
It’s a natural antiseptic and an analgesic. It’s good for your complexion. It’s better for your system than sugar, and is a natural energy food. Marathon runners eat it before races. Hospitals use it to treat burns.
Leave a Comment October 16, 2012
The USDA convened a very interesting conference on the health of honey bees. Any observer who does not specialize in the subject had to be impressed—if not surprised—by the amount of research that has been conducted on bees. Upon consideration such an emphasis is understandable in that a significant portion of our food crops is dependent upon bees.
Salient points made at the meeting and observed by CRE include:
— Accolades to USDA for emphasizing bee health decline in lieu of CCD.
Leave a Comment October 15, 2012
From: Gizmodo
Trying to count the bees buzzing about in a hive is like trying to count the grains of sand on a beach. But if you’re worried the deadly virus that has been decimating beehives across the country might be jeopardizing your source of fresh honey, check out this honey bee counter that tracks the comings and goings of your hive’s population.
Leave a Comment October 15, 2012
From: The Daily Beast
It was a dark December night, which is why the lights were on outside the biology building at San Francisco State University, where a professor named John Hafernik studies bees, butterflies, beetles, and other insects of note. Those lights, illuminating his building’s entryway, would catapult Hafernik into a story that reads like a mystery novel—or at least a B movie. Scattered on the sidewalk, just beneath the flickering bulbs, were a handful of honeybees.
Leave a Comment October 11, 2012
CRE Editor’s Note to the University Times (Ireland)
We note a difference between the title of the following article and its text. The title raises a question regarding the impact of pesticides on disappearing bees whereas the text is considerably more conclusive when it states: “New research points to widely used pesticide Clothianidin as a precursor to these mass disappearances…..It represents another triumph for corporate sponsored blinkering of our environmental awareness.”
We call your particlar attention to research conducted by a leading European scientist which concludes that the Varroa mite spreads a lethal disease which results in bee health decline. “So the only way to control the virus is to control the levels of the mite..”
Leave a Comment October 9, 2012
From: BeeInformed.org
The graphic above illustrates the basic cycle of beekeeping during the summer season in northern California. Things like applying treatments and feeding are management decisions based on what the bees are doing in response to the environment around them. Feeding and treating is operation specific and location dependent.
Leave a Comment October 9, 2012
From: Symmetry – Dimensions of Particle Physics
Signe Brewster
Inside their hives, bees face a variety of enemies. Parasites transfer diseases. Bacteria infect honey. Fungi overwhelm larvae. These problems can become so rife that the hives are rendered inhospitable.
To save their bee colonies, some beekeepers turn to particle accelerators.
Leave a Comment October 8, 2012
Editor’s Note: The interview with James Marshall of the University of Sheffield is available (mp3 format) here.
From: 89.3 KPCC Southern California’s Public Radio
Colony Collapse Disorder is how scientists describe the mysterious die off of honey bees around the globe. Honey bees pollinate lots of different types of crops and researchers are concerned that food supplies could be affected by the disorder. The cause of colony collapse is still unknown but scientists in England are working on a project that could mitigate its effects.
Leave a Comment October 5, 2012
From: SwissInfo.ch
by Olivier Pauchard
Leave a Comment October 3, 2012
