Can mushrooms save the honeybee?
February 18, 2015
From: Crosscut.com
Paul Stamets has had a life-long love affair with mushrooms, one that goes well beyond their culinary and psychedelic qualities. Wearing his signature hat — made from mushrooms — a turtle pendant and, always, a blue scarf, the nearly 60 year-old mycologist runs Fungi Perfecti, a family-owned farm and business in Shelton, Washington.
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Varroa mites spread viruses that can be deadly to bees. Sheppard explained that what keeps many commercial beekeepers up at night is the fact that the pesticides currently used to control mites are becoming ineffective. Mites have such a short life span that they quickly evolve and develop resistance to synthetic pesticides.
Sheppard and Stamets may have found a way around the problem.
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