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

[fendahleen.livejournal.com]

It's only a matter of time before this fungus decides it has no further need of us.

[sunshaker.livejournal.com]

Being a bit of a bee lover (honey and mead are lovely things) I went to a few beekeeper meetings and the like and read stuff online. One of the things I read about was how the industry itself was causing the mite problem by making bigger bees (bigger bees = more honey). It seems that the pre-made sheets of wax used by beekeepers for the bees to make cells are actually 3-5mm larger than the normal size that the bees would make themselves, thus the cells that the bees make are larger and leave more room for the larvae to grow, which results in a larger bee. Seems like a good idea, the only downside is that the bees require more food to survive. Well this is not the case the, these larger cells leave more room for the mites to lay eggs on the bee larvae (up to 3 times the number of mite eggs are placed on each bee).

From what I recall a number of organic beekeepers started allowing the bees to make the cells the size they normally would make them and experienced a drop in mite problems. Of course they had smaller bees and got a lower yield.

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I saw this on a number of friends pages including rialian