November 30, 2015
Editor’s Note: Dowload an mp3 podcast of the following story here.
From: Public Radio International (PRI)
Maryann Frazier, a researcher at Penn State’s Center for Pollinator Research, checks on one of her experimental honeybee hives. Frazier says the Varroa mite poses one of the greatest dangers to honeybee populations.
According to bee researcher Maryann Frazier, the Varroa mite, a parasitic mite that feeds on the blood of adult bees and on the brood, is the main thing that’s been wiping out honeybees since the 1990s.
Treatments for the Varroa mite have been, and still are, very limited. One of them involves spraying bees — which are, of course, insects — with insecticides, in the hope that the chemicals will kill the mites, but not the bees. The approach has worked well enough to give some colonies at least a fighting chance.
Read Complete Article
Leave a Comment