Review of Bee Health

How do Varroa Mites Know when to Leave Honey Bee Hives? It’s all in the Bees’ Wax

From: Entomology Today

 by Entomology Today

Although they are really tiny, the Varroa mite has the potential to bring large parts of western agriculture to its knees by infesting and destroying honey bee hives. Varroa mites are the “single most detrimental pest of honey bees,” according to the USDA National Honey Bee Health Stakeholder Conference Steering Committee. In addition to attaching to and feeding on the bees, Varroa mites can spread harmful viruses and reduce bee immunity.

Leave a Comment September 4, 2014

Bee careful out there – a parasitic marauder is nearly at our shores

From: The Sydney Morning Herald

Peter Spinks

Honeybees lead something of a charmed life, as they flit about collecting nectar and pollen and producing oodles of honey and wax. But now, it seems, their carefree days might soon be numbered.

Populations of the four-winged insects, which pollinate the flowers of at least one-third of wild and farmed plants that humans eat, have decreased over the past three decades in the US and Britain. In part, this has been due to the prevalence of crop pesticides, the destruction of flower-rich habitats and pests.

Leave a Comment September 2, 2014