Metarhizium anisopliae

[helen99]

Saving Bees: Fungus Found To Attack Varroa Mites

A while ago you may have heard that honeybees were dying because of a mite infection. They tried several poisons, but the poisons were harmful to bees, the mite became resistant to the poisons, and one of the chemicals is on the EPA hit list for removal from the market. On a whim, I did a search on beekeeping and found the above link which says they've found a naturally occurring fungus called metarhizium anisopliae, which kills the varroa mite (and, incidentally, termites). It has been tested and shown to be harmless to bees and over time does not affect hive population. I'm not entirely sure what its Big Picture effect will be. Better than a chemical poison, no doubt. I'm hopeful for the bees, at any rate.

Yay!

Comments

[helen99.livejournal.com]

And they'd also better be using bees wax. If they use other kinds of wax, of course the bees won't be as healthy and their immune systems will be compromised. Idiot children.

[sunshaker.livejournal.com]

I have no information on that, I'm sure there are people that do not use beeswax but most (if not all) beekeepers use beeswax. Most beekeepers have a machine that will roll out sheets of beeswax for them (rather like a printing press), they will have to get new rollers for those machines or whole new machines if they want to switch over which is $. Other beekeepers use a wire set up (the wire is in the hex shape) which the bees build the wax comb onto (not sure of the metals used so that could again be a problem and it would make honey still in the comb unpleasant to eat).