[Pollinator] Fwd: What's troubling the honey bees

[Ladadams at aol.com]

____________________________________
 From: kegarvey at ucdavis.edu
To: lda at pollinator.org
Sent: 1/4/2012 4:28:52  P.M. Pacific Standard Time
Subj: What's troubling the honey  bees



 
Hi,  Laurie, 
Can  you send this out on the server? Thanks! 
Three Decades of Beekeeping: Not Business  as Usual 
DAVIS--Noted honey bee expert _Eric Mussen_ 
(http://beebiology.ucdavis.edu/PEOPLE/ericmussen.html) ,  Extension apiculturist with the UC Davis 
Department of Entomology, will  discuss three decades of beekeeping when he delivers 
the keynote address on  Thursday, Jan. 5 at the 43rd annual American Honey 
Producers’ Association  Convention in Phoenix. 
Mussen will speak on “Never Expert ‘Business  as Usual” in the Sheraton 
Crescent Hotel. He will cover pests, parasites,  pesticides, diseases, 
malnutrition and stress. 
Mussen, who joined the UC Davis Department of  Entomology in 1976, will 
also touch on the newly announced threat to honey  bees, the parasitic phorid 
fly (Apocephalus borealis).  San Francisco State University researchers, in 
work published Jan. 3 in the  _Public  Library of Science (PLoS One)_ 
(http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0029639) _  journal_ 
(http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0029639) , 
found that the parasitic fly lays its eggs in the honey bees; it  was 
previously known to parasitize bumble bees, but not honey bees.   
The infested bees reportedly fly around like  zombies and cannot return to 
their hives.
“This information explains why  some, infested, honey bee adults leave the 
colony at night and are not likely  to come back,” Mussen said. “The 
percent infestation level is not high enough  to cause a Colony Collapse Disorder 
(CCD) loss, by itself. However, anything  that further stresses the bee 
population and increases bee losses can  contribute to CCD.”  
Mussen said the fly “may be contributing to  the loss of adult bees from 
colonies, but that probably is happening, also, in  colonies that are not 
collapsing.  CCD seems to be an additive malady, so  losses to fly parasitism 
can join the other stresses.  It does not appear  to be a dominant factor. ” 
The San Francisco researchers detected the  fly parasite in some commercial 
hives in California and South Dakota.  Mussen said that without surveys, “
we would not know for sure how  widespread it is.  However, it is likely that 
a bumble bee parasite would  be distributed at least as widespread as its 
bumble bee  hosts.” 
Mussen said he does not consider the fly a  significant threat.  “Honey 
bees have an amazing ability to ‘make up for’  unanticipated losses--like 
exposures to bee-toxic agrichemicals in the  fields--to the adult population by 
rearing more brood than would be expected  at that time of the year to 
return to normal populations size.  So, if  the colony is shrinking, abnormally, 
the bees often can re-establish the  normal size by rearing ‘extra’ brood.  
However, depending upon the  inherent genetic abilities of a specific 
colony to tolerate fly parasitism,  some colonies might be prone to developing 
parasite levels that are  overwhelming, and actually succumb to the 
infestations.” 
See more at  
http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/news/ericmussensusancobeyahpa.html 
Kathy Keatley  Garvey
Communications Specialist
Department of Entomology
372 Briggs  Hall
One Shields Ave.
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA  95616
Phone: (530) 754-6894
Fax: (530) 752-1537
_kegarvey at ucdavis.edu_ (mailto:kegarvey at ucdavis.edu)  
UC Davis  Department of Entomology website:
_http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/home.cfm_ 
(http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/home.cfm) 
Harry  H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility website:
_http://beebiology.ucdavis.edu_ (http://beebiology.ucdavis.edu/) 
UC Agriculture  and Natural Resources website:
_http://ucanr.org/index.cfm_ (http://ucanr.org/index.cfm) 
Bug Squad  Blog
_http://ucanr.org/blogs/bugsquad/_ (http://ucanr.org/blogs/bugsquad/) 
Flickr  Photos 
_http://www.flickr.com/photos/pho-tog/_ 
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/pho-tog/)  


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