Jun 4, 2015

Have experts found the key to honeybee loss?

Honeybees are buzzing around the news — again.

This time around, experts are offering more information about recent honeybee losses.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Zachary Huang, a Michigan State University entomologist, might have figured out how varroa mites infiltrate honeybee colonies:

About the size of a pinhead, the mite is believed to be a main reason for the collapse of the nation’s honeybee population in recent years. But just how it infiltrated such socially complex, organized colonies was unclear. It was first known to use the Asian honeybee as host.

At Michigan State, researchers analyzed the chemical cloak of the mites, finding them surprisingly similar to bees.

In other words, the mite “tries to make itself smell like a bee,”Huang said.

And moving from one colony to another means simply waiting for the opportunity. When bee colonies are dying — sometimes because of the mites — intruder bees steal the honey.

The stealthy mite hitches a ride on the intruder bee, entering a new colony undetected and settling into a hexagonal cell of a larvae. It then feeds on hemolymph, or bee blood, much like a tick attaches itself to a human or other mammal.

Just as devastating for the hive, the mite brings with it viruses, said Mike Risk, a long-time beekeeper and owner of Risk’s Apiary and Honey House northeast of East Lansing.

“We’re not only dealing with the blood-sucking mite, it’s the viruses that it introduces,”said Risk.

Researchers at the University of Kentucky announced the same discovery. According to the university, “Varroa mites were first reported in Kentucky in the Bluegrass region of the Commonwealth in 1991. They have spread to and become a major pest of honey bees in many states since their introduction into Florida in the mid 1980s.”

The University of Kentucky College of Agriculture report is available here.

Scientists from all over the country are working to solve the honeybee mystery. Some say Nosema ceranae, a pest similar to the varroa mite, is to blame.

Here’s the summary from the University of California – San Diego, as published in Science Daily:

A tiny single-celled parasite may have a greater than expected impact on honeybee colonies, which have been undergoing mysterious declines worldwide for the past decade, researchers have discovered. Since 2006, beekeepers in North America and Europe have lost about one-third of their managed bee colonies each year due to “colony collapse disorder.”While the exact cause is unknown, scientists have speculated that pesticides, pathogens, mites and certain beekeeping practices have all contributed to this decline.

In this week’s issue of the journal PLOS ONE, a similar story was reported.