Governor Cuomo Announces Recommendations From New York State Pollinator Task Force
From: New York State
Leave a Comment June 29, 2016
Archives – June, 2016
Zach Huang’s research gives new insight into the destructive Varroa mite
From: Michigan State University | Department of Entomology
MSU researcher Zachary Huang is working hard to gain insight into the reproductive secrets of one of the world’s tiniest and most destructive parasites – the Varroa mite.
“If you know your enemies better, you can come up with new ways of controlling them,” said Huang, whose research explores the fertility of the notorious mite, a pest that is devastating honey bee populations worldwide. The mite sucks the blood of honeybees and transmits deadly viruses.
Leave a Comment June 28, 2016
Reversing Pollinator Decline is Key to Feeding the Future
From: USDA | National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Sonny Ramaswamy, Director, NIFA
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The following are a few, recent accomplishments resulting from NIFA funding provided to university, government, and private partners.
- The Bee Informed Partnership (link is external) (BIP), an extension-led consortium of bee researchers and extension specialists, is working closely with beekeepers and queen breeders to demonstrate monitoring techniques for disease and mite management. The partnership is also working with queen breeders to use regionally appropriate practices for selecting mite and disease resistance traits. Recent findings show that beekeepers who follow BIP guidelines to manage varroa mites have a 20.4 percent annual colony loss rate, which is a remarkable improvement.
Leave a Comment June 27, 2016
Mysterious “zombie bee” scourge reaches new state
From: CBS News
NORFOLK — The mysterious “zombie bee” parasite that kills honeybees has reached the southern United States after scientists confirmed a case in Virginia about an hour outside Roanoke, researchers announced this week.
The discovery suggests the phenomenon is more widespread than previously thought, although researchers still know little about how many bees it actually kills.
Leave a Comment June 24, 2016
Science detectives investigate a ‘mitey’ big problem
From: Phys.org
by Jan Suszkiw
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists are hot on the trail of a honey bee killer, and their detective work has taken them from hives in Tucson, Arizona, to those in Bismarck, North Dakota.
Led by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) supervisory research entomologist Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman, the team is staking out the entrances of victimized hives, eyeing the comings and goings of foraging honey bees that they suspect may be unwitting accomplices.
Leave a Comment June 23, 2016
Truck Full of Malarkey on Tour
Editor’s Note: Even though USDA, EPA and other regulatory agencies around the world have concluded that the parasitic varroa mite and the diseases its carries is, by far, the greatest threat to bees around the world, ‘recognised as the major factor underlying colony loss in the US and other countries’” and even the leading role of varroa in honeybee decline has been confirmde over and over again around the world, some organizations that purport to help bees prefer circuses to science.
From: Environmental America via Common Dreams
Leave a Comment June 22, 2016
Pollinator Week emphasizes looking at all bee stresses
From: AgProfressional
By Rich Keller, Editor, Ag Professional
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“What we know so far is that there are a handful of issues that can cause problems for bees. Severe weather, pests and disease, lack of forage and nutrition, lack of genetic diversity and incidental pesticide exposure may all be causing problems,” said Carson Klosterman, a farmer from Wyndmere, N.D., and member of NCGA’s Production and Stewardship Action Team.
Leave a Comment June 21, 2016
Beekeepers breed stronger bees to fight mite epidemic
From: Pulse Headlines
By
Many beekeepers have been forced to breed stronger bees due to the devastating effects of the Varroa mite in bee colonies.
Since the insect’s arrival to the U.S. in the 1980’s honey bee populations have been steadily dropping. Even if beekeeping has become a more modern practice, it is estimated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that over 50 percent of the country’s bee colonies have perished. That’s almost 3 million honey bee colonies that have disappeared, either from disease or due to human activity.
Leave a Comment June 20, 2016
Apprentice beekeeper stumbles on solution to disease wreaking havoc in Alice Springs
From: ABC.au | Rural
A novice beekeeper in Alice Springs has stumbled upon a solution to a disease that has been devastating Red Centre hives.
Last month ABC Rural reported on chalkbrood disease.
At the time the most experienced apiarist in Alice Springs, Russell Wilson, reported that his honey yield had been cut by 80 per cent and that the CSIRO had been involved to identify the problem.
Leave a Comment June 17, 2016
‘Vampire’ mites pick bees with the best blood
From: Futurity
Scientists know more about the reproductive secrets of one of the world’s tiniest and most destructive parasites—the Varroa mite—and say what they’ve learned may bring them closer to controlling them.
“If you know your enemies better, you can come up with new ways of controlling them,” says Zachary Huang, associate professor of entomology at Michigan State University, who studies the fertility of the notorious mite. It’s devastating honeybee populations worldwide. The mite sucks their and transmits deadly viruses.
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Leave a Comment June 16, 2016
