Archives – August, 2017
Editor’s Note: See, Banning Neonicotinoids is an Environmental Catastrophe and Assessment from the French Ministry of Agriculture on Bee Deaths: Varroa is Enemy #1.
From: The Times of India
England wheat area falls by 2.5 percent – ministry
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Farmers in the east of England have cut back rapeseed plantings partly due to problems controlling cabbage stem flea beetle, crop analysts have said.
Curbs on the use of a class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids have led to problems controlling the beetles. The EU has restricted their use to protect bees.
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August 17, 2017
From: Futurity
Posted by Layne Cameron-Michigan State
Scientists have discovered a group of genes critical to the survival and reproduction of Varroa mites, the chief enemy of honey bees. The genes could be targeted to control or eliminate the mites.
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“The Varroa mite is the worst threat to honey bee health worldwide,” says Zachary Huang, Michigan State University entomologist. “They have developed resistance to many pesticides, so it’s urgent that we explore and target these genes to develop better control methods.”
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August 16, 2017
From: Rapp News
Honey bee colonies for operations with five or more colonies in Virginia as of July 2017 totaled 8,000, a 23 percent increase over the 6.500 colonies at the start of 2016, according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS).
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Varroa mites were the number one stressor for operations with five or more colonies during each of the quarters surveyed. The quarter of January-March 2017 showed Varroa mites at 21.4 percent. The quarter of July-September 2016 experienced the highest percentage of the six quarters at 39.1 percent. The quarter of April-June 2017 at 19.8 percent was the lowest percentage.
August 15, 2017
From: Michigan State University
Contact(s): Layne Cameron, Zachary Huang
Seemingly indestructible Varroa mites have decimated honeybee populations and are a primary cause of colony collapse disorder, or CCD.
Michigan State University scientists have found genetic holes in the pests’ armor that could potentially reduce or eliminate the marauding invaders. The team’s results, published in the current issue of Insect Science, have identified four genes critical for survival and two that directly affect reproduction.
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August 14, 2017
From: MinnPost
By Ron Meador
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The big headline, I think, is that commercial beekeepers’ losses to the mysterious colony collapse disorder (CCD) were down 27.2 percent, year over year, for the first three months of 2017. Because winter is especially hard on ailing bees, the first quarter is usually, though not always, the worst for such die-offs.
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Those last two factors, a mite and a fungus, are significant parasites on honeybees, and according to the USDA’s new stats varroa mites were “the number one stressor” reported by commercial beekeepers, defined as those who keep five or more hives.
August 11, 2017
From: CBC News
Alberta bees bounce back as monitoring leads to healthier hives
Alberta’s bee population has been recovering since a 2007 infestation wiped out thousands of colonies
Bees in Alberta are making a comeback a decade after being hit by a mite infestation and a harsh winter that depleted hives by 30 per cent in the province.
The population has increased from 223,000 hives in 2007 to 305,000 in 2016, Medhat Nasr, an apiculturist with Alberta’s agriculture ministry, told CBC News Tuesday.
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August 10, 2017
From: Pollinator Partnership
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 TO SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2017
Mite-A-Thon is a national effort to collect mite infestation data and to visualize varroa infestations in honey bee colonies across North America within a one week window. All beekeepers will be asked to participate, creating a rich distribution of sampling sites in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Their varroa monitoring data will be uploaded to www.mitecheck.com.
The parasitic mite, Varroa destructor (varroa), and the viruses it vectors is a significant driver of this honey bee colony mortality. Yet, indicators suggest that many beekeepers are not monitoring honey bee colony varroa infestations and therefore not able to connect infestation to colony loss.
August 9, 2017
From: Simon Fraser University Press Release
Simon Fraser University researcher Oldooz Pooyanfar has developed a bee monitoring system to study honey bee health. Credit: SFU
Simon Fraser University graduate student Oldooz Pooyanfar is monitoring what more than 20,000 honeybees housed in hives in a Cloverdale field are “saying” to each other — looking for clues about their health.
Pooyanfar’s technology is gleaning communication details from sound within the hives with her beehive monitoring system — technology she developed at SFU. She says improving knowledge about honey bee activity is critical, given a 30 per cent decline in the honeybee population over the past decade in North America. Research into the causes of what is referred to as Colony Collapse Disorder continues. The presence of fewer bees affects both crop pollination and the environment.
August 8, 2017
Editor’s Note: The study, “Agricultural Landscape and Pesticide Effects on Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Biological Traits” by Mohamed Alburaki, Sandra J. Steckel, et al is available here.
From: Lebanon Democrat
JACKSON – While recent media reports have condemned a commonly used agricultural pesticide as detrimental to honeybee health, scientists with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture have found that the overall health of honeybee hives actually improves in the presence of agricultural production.
August 7, 2017
From: Growing Produce
Posted By: Carol Miller
Varroa mites, like the one attached to the back of this honey bee, can decimate unprotected hives. The tiny parasites feed on the bees’ blood and can infect them with harmful viruses. (Photo credit: Scott Bauer, USDA-ARS)
Cornell University’s NYS Beekeeper Tech Team released a report showing that the state of the New York’s beekeepers are being overwhelmed by varroa mites in 2016. A full 90% of colonies sampled had the parasitic pests.
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August 4, 2017
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