"Vampire" mite ravages U.S. honeybee population.Beekeepers in the United States lost half their bees--more than 1.25 million colonies--in early 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA USDA, n.pr See United States Department of Agriculture. ). Unusually cool, rainy weather in the winter and spring and the spread of a new strain of mites resistant to chemical controls combined to devastate the honeybee honeybee Broadly, any bee that makes honey (any insect of the tribe Apini, family Apidae); more strictly, one of the four species constituting the genus Apis. The term is usually applied to one species, the domestic honeybee (A. populations. The mites, known as Varroa var·ro·a n. A reddish-brown, oval mite (Varroa jacobsoni) that is a parasite of honeybees. [New Latin Varroa, genus name, after Marcus Terentius Varro.] , parasitically attach to adult honeybees and larvae and feed on their body fluids, disrupting the development of individual bees and sometimes destroying entire colonies. "It's the biggest crisis that has ever faced the U.S. beekeeping beekeeping or apiculture Care and manipulation of honeybees to enable them to produce and store more honey than they need so that the excess can be collected. Beekeeping is one of the oldest forms of animal husbandry. industry," said Laurence Cutts, president of the Florida State Beekeepers Association. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When the Varroa first arrived from China in the mid-1980s, U.S. beekeepers were initially able to control the parasites with Apistan, a chemical insecticide. Over generations, however, the mites evolved resistance to this treatment, as well as to formic acid pesticides. Cold and wet weather further increased the bees' vulnerability to the mites. While beekeepers have lost millions of dollars' worth of honey, the bee colonies are far more valuable for their role in crop pollination pollination, transfer of pollen from the male reproductive organ (stamen or staminate cone) to the female reproductive organ (pistil or pistillate cone) of the same or of another flower or cone. , a service valued at roughly $15 billion annually. The Western honeybee pollinates more than 100 species of agricultural crops in the United States. With fewer bees to rent to farmers during the pollination season, beekeepers have doubled and tripled the price of their bees' time. Those unable to bring in enough bees, especially home gardeners, can all expect reduced yields this year. Without adequate pollination, fruits may develop poorly or not at all. Hoping to prevent a similar or worse crisis next year, USDA and several agricultural universities are researching new ways to control the Varroa mite. One possibility is the use of a powdered pathogenic fungus or oxalic acid; another involves screens and traps that reduce Varroa prevalence. University researchers are also trying to develop a strain of "hygienic" bees that clean out their broods when they detect Varroa infestation infestation /in·fes·ta·tion/ (-fes-ta´shun) parasitic attack or subsistence on the skin and/or its appendages, as by insects, mites, or ticks; sometimes used to denote parasitic invasion of the organs and tissues, as by helminths. . Some beekeepers, meanwhile, are cultivating Russian bees that have evolved a natural resistance to the mutagenic mutagenic inducing genetic mutation. mites. Others are promoting the use of native Blue Orchard bees. |
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