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bee health · beekeeping · bees, pollinators, beekeeping, environment · natural cures · nature · Uncategorized

We Can Reverse Insectageddon

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On my first date, a boy took me to a movie. His dad drove us, and his little brother, age 8, came along.

The movie featured a villainous giant spider with hairy legs and hideous fangs. I had hoped my date would hold my hand, but he couldn’t. My hands covered my eyes. Little Brother dove under his seat and hid.


Periodically, a movie, book, or article predicted a future where fragile humans would cede their dominance to durable insects, usually creepy ones.    

That forecast hasn’t come true. Instead, insects have declined precipitously and some species have gone extinct. Even scientists who disagree with the idea of an insect apocalypse don’t dispute the losses. They argue that we have not identified all insect species because they are so numerous, so we don’t have the entire picture.


But we know about bees and butterflies, and the loss of birds who depended on insects for their diet. That is well-documented.    


Harmful chemicals, urban encroachment and habitat loss, intensive farming and climate change all play a role in insect decline, and harm for the plants and animals who depend on them.

These problems feel overwhelming. But a 2007 book, Nature’s Best Hope—A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard, became a bestseller by telling readers they could bring back the insects and birds. The author, Douglas Tallamy, an entomologist, urged people to convert their yards from lawns to native plants.


Tallamy had an ambitious proposal. If every American converted half of their lawn to native plants, it would restore 20 million acres of ecological wasteland. That would comprise the country’s largest park system.


Native plants advocates tell us that soil and weather conditions give those plants an edge over nonnative grasses and plants. And nourish birds and other species.   
But as someone trying to convert a large section of lawn to native plants, I have seen that grass doesn’t surrender territory without a long, bitter fight. And sadly, nonnative weeds also can push aside beneficial plants.


I have planted species known to be aggressive that lost out to grass and invasive weeds. The past few years have shown me which native plants will hold their own in my yard against grass and intrusive plants. Yet, grown at a neighbor’s place, those same plants might struggle.


In hindsight, it might have been better to experiment with small areas that I could monitor before trying to convert a large chunk of property. 

  
Converting half of U.S lawns stands as a great goal. But to people who can’t conceive of yards without border-to-border green lawn, it sounds radical. If each of us would convert just a section of property, we could help bees, butterflies, and the birds that we love, and overcome our feeling of helplessness.


Legions of people rent houses and apartments and have no say over the grounds where they live. Those folks can advocate for native plants in public spaces, and plant beneficial plants in pots to place on balconies and porches.     


Here is the National Wildlife Federation web site for advice on native plants: http://www.nwf.org/NativePlantFinder.

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Bees Finally Catch a Break

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Beekeepers and bee lovers have learned to dread reading news about bees. It is nearly always bad. Poisonous pesticides, habitat loss, disease, and climate change combine to make a gloomy outlook for bees and their future.

But now university researchers have announced a new product that offers hope. They have created a synthetic food that can sustain bees when natural food sources wane.

The artificial food source works similar to power bars for humans. Placed in a honeybee colony, the supplement supplies essential nutrients for larvae and adult bees. 

Inadequate nutrition threatens the health of bees, especially those that primarily pollinate one crop. Bees need a variety of blooms to stay healthy. Crops like blueberries and sunflowers don’t supply adequate nutrition. Some beekeepers have stopped renting their bees to blackberry growers because their bees sickened and died from malnutrition.    

“Until this study,” a scientist said, “honeybees were the only livestock that could not be maintained on man-made food.”

The researchers discovered that isofucosterol, a molecule found in natural pollen, acts as a vital nutrient for honeybees. Colonies fed isofucosterol-enriched food survived an entire season without access to pollen, and colonies weakened from malnutrition recovered when fed the new food.

The high death rate of colonies makes the development critical. Changes in land use, urban expansion, and extreme weather have impacted available food sources for pollinators.

Three teams cooperated in the research:  APIX Bioscience, Belgium; Washinton State University; and prominent beekeepers in California.  

The developers express confidence that the new product will have a positive impact for beekeepers and growers who depend on pollinators. They predict the nutritional supplement will be available for purchase in the US in 2026.

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Bee Health around the Globe: MEXICO

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Mexico has great biodiversity in birds, amphibians, plants, and insects. Diverse species require abundant and varied vegetation, and that depends on a healthy population of pollinators.

The country’s farmers rely on pollinators, too. Like other countries around the world, Mexico has experienced a decline in its bee population due to loss of vegetation and increased use of fertilizers and agrochemicals on plants the bees visit.    

Add to that, the varroa mite. The enemy of beekeepers throughout the world has found its way to Mexico. When the mite showed up in the U.S. and Canada, Mexico closed its borders to U.S. bees. But it was only a matter of time until the destructive parasite showed up in our southern neighbor’s colonies.

The decline has economic implications. Mexico has 42,000 honey producers operating 2 million beehives. Honey exports bring about 56 million (US) dollars into the Mexican economy.

Mexico is home to native bees that live in small colonies and make honey. And many indigenous communities engage in beekeeping, cultivating and harvesting honey with pre-colonization methods, like using clay pots to house bees.

But the domesticated European beepollinates many more plants and produces much more honey. The two main production areas are the Yucatan Peninsula and the states of Chiapas, Veracruz, and Guerrero.  

Adding to the country’s beekeeping woes, Mexico has been under severe drought and faced extreme heat, especially in the northern part of the country. This exacerbated the problems facing domestic and wild bees.

Bees are dying in huge numbers because the lack of rain drastically reduced wild flower blooms. The bees went looking for pollen in fields with crops. Chemicals killed them, as well as pests.

The northern state of Chihuahua has a dry or semi-dry climate at the best of times, but rainfall has been unusually low in recent years. Dams and lagoons have emptied.

Farmers decided to leave land unplanted and use scarce water to keep long-standing groves of walnut trees from dying. One longtime beekeeper said that in his memory, the landscape has never been so bleak.

Mexico’s southern states have not been immune from lack of rainfall and high heat. Last year, beekeepers mounted a campaign to rescue wild bees that had no water or food sources, because the farmers needed them to pollinate their crops.

bee health · beekeeping · bees, pollinators, beekeeping, environment · natural cures · nature · Uncategorized

Bee Health around the Globe-Australia

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Photo by Amy Blizzard

Bee Health around the Globe. Australia

Australia’s honey producers have something to celebrate and something to mourn.

Australian honey has a reputation for good flavor and purity, and the country is one of the top ten honey producers in the world. Honeybees in Australia live amid an abundance of natural resources in a comparatively pollution-free environment. Bees have a variety of plants to visit, and the climate is mostly favorable.  

The country’s commercial industry mostly operates as nomadic. Hives are moved up to 20 times in a year, either for pollination contracts or for honey production. Beekeepers follow the budding and flowering of plants.

Australia’s native bees are small and stingless. For honey production, beekeepers depend on Asian and European honeybees.   

Australia was the last major country to remain free of the varroa mite, a parasite that has brought calamity to beekeepers around the world. But in 2022, the mite was found in Australian hives.

A government agency jumped into action to keep the mite from spreading. But only two years later, the agency said the mite can’t be eradicated, and shifted its emphasis to trying to contain the parasite. This is the goal in the U.S. also. Beekeepers try to control the spread and lessen the mite’s impact. 

Australia produces a variety of honey on its huge land, with flavors influenced by the local flora. Well-known honeys include:

• Manuka, known for its medicinal properties, produced from the nectar of the Leptospermum (tea trees).  

• Leatherwood, unique to Tasmania, known for its distinctive spicy flavor and aromatic properties.

• Jarrah and Karri, from Western Australia, known for high antimicrobial activity and thick consistency.

• Eucalyptus, with a slightly herbal flavor, harvested from the numerous eucalyptus species across Australia.

The arrival of the destructive varroa mite has been bad news, but the honey industry recently got some good news, too.  Seven years of research on Manuka honey validated its reputation as an antibacterial product. The research confirmed that Australian honey had medicinal properties similar to New Zealand’s well-known manuka honey.

This is a potential boon for the Australian industry. Medical-grade honey sourced from New Zealand earns that country an estimated $75 million a year.

Medical-grade honey has been proven to be an effective treatment for wounds and skin infections. Studies show it can kill superbugs that have built immunity to conventional antibiotics. The honey can be used to treat bacterial infections like C-diff.

“We had assumed that the unique antibacterial activity found in manuka honey is more active and stable than that of other varieties,” a researcher said. “Now, our research confirms this belief and goes a step further. We proved that Australia’s Manuka honey is just as effective, if not better, than New Zealand varieties, based on a survey of 80 Manuka-type Australian honeys.”

Beekeepers believe the research puts Australian Manuka honey on the international radar at a time when antibiotic resistance has been recognized as a global crisis.

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Bee Health Around the Globe-Africa

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With bee populations in decline in the U.S., it is natural to wonder how bees are doing around the globe. How about in Africa?

In contrast to the docile European honeybees we raise in the U.S., honey bees in Africa generally live in tree cavities or on the ground, not in manmade hives. Africa has hundreds of millions of colonies.

 African beekeepers have little reason to establish hives near their houses. African bees can be highly aggressive, and special knowledge and precautions are needed to handle them.

When antiapartheid leader Nelson Mandela was still alive, he one day stepped out of the shower at his South African home into a swarm of attacking honeybees. The bees stung repeatedly, and Mandela had to run for cover.

Traditional healers speculated that the ancestors were expressing disapproval. In Xhosa tradition, an encounter with tranquil bees signifies ancestor approval; a visit from angry bees means ancestor displeasure.  

The incident made international news and reinforced the reputation of African bees as nasty critters.    

In the last 20 years, bee researchers from other continents, grappling with the problem of shrinking bee populations, started studying bees in Africa. Honeybee populations in South Africa, Uganda, Kenya and Benin are strong.  

Diseases, either native or imported, exist in colonies, but don’t seem to generate widespread mortality. Some researchers wonder whether our industrial method of beekeeping contributes to the bee crisis. Removing bees from their natural setting and confining them in hives may have weakened them.  

Despite the generally positive situation on the African continent, some decline in populations have been observed. In parts of Madagascar, Kenya. and South Africa, colonies have succumbed to the dreaded varroa mite that plagues U.S. honeybees. And some beekeepers are having more trouble trapping wild swarms to build their stocks.

Killer (African) bees arrived in South America in the 1950s and started migrating north. By the 1990s, they had reached Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, and have now spread to other Southern states.

A university study in Arizona said that today, 100 percent of Arizona’s wild bee colonies are Africanized, a fact people should know. Bees make their home in holes, walls, trees and junk piles. They are more easily provoked, but look almost identical to our easygoing Italian and Carniolan breeds.

Africanized bees in the U.S. led some warm-climate municipalities to prohibit backyard beekeeping. Beekeepers in those climates, who are trying to maintain non-Africanized colonies, face a steep, uphill battle.   

Some think inbreeding with the hardier African bees may strengthen our domestic genetics. But others warn that trading bees all over the world has negative consequences, not just for people. Bees end up in environments with diseases they have no immunity against. And aggressive breeds displace docile ones.   

We who live in northern states hope Africanized bees won’t come our way due to a warming climate.

Yet, because we depend on honeybees, it is comforting to know that somewhere in the world colonies thrive. If, through selective breeding, the African bee could contribute its hardiness while surrendering its bad temper, that could be a boon. Bees thriving without the intervention of humans is the Holy Grail for scientists and beekeepers.

Scientists hope that Africa shields its healthy colonies from further invading disease.  

bees, pollinators, beekeeping, environment · natural cures · nature · Uncategorized

Bring Back the Bugs

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We didn’t like living with insects. Spiders startled us, flying insects smashed themselves against windshields, and ants showed up minutes after we spread the blanket for a picnic.

It turns out, insects did not like living with us, either, and decided to check out. In the last 40 years, insect populations decreased by 45 percent. Just as we started to appreciate that everyone has a place in the choir and the ecosystem. The insects who promote health in agriculture, forests, and plains disappeared along with the ones who bugged us.

The plight of bees gets a lot of attention. The measures we take to help them will benefit other insects, too. Bringing back native plants, ones that evolved with the ecosystem where we live, helps bees, domestic and wild, and their six and eight-legged buddies. Eschewing chemicals helps, too. 

Not everyone can comfortably replace their lawn. People have neighbors with expectations. Some homeowners are governed by HOAs. Renters would seem to have no opportunity to help. But this week I heard of practical suggestions that almost anyone can adopt.

Designate a certain area of yard to native plants. If the neighborhood is strict, a small, inexpensive fence around the native-plant area will signal that the plants are intentional. Many native plants are attractive, and can add to a yard’s beauty. Some plants attract pollinators, but are not native and won’t interact with the animal and plant life around them. 

Some varieties of caterpillars fall from trees, and spend the next phase of their life in vegetation at the base of trees. Trouble is, caterpillars fall onto naked ground. Most yards and all parks have barren circles at the base of trees.

Native species planted around trees invite insects back. To many eyes, the plants bring extra beauty.

Renters or apartment dwellers can offer to adopt a single tree and cultivate plants around it. The expert I heard said most landlords don’t object to a person getting involved with the yard. The same can go for HOAs. A person can start with a single tree, rimming it with plants, and then add more.

Expensive fogging for mosquitoes doesn’t work, but does harm other insects. People can build a mosquito trap in a half-bucket of water, and add an inexpensive mosquito dunk pill, available at hardware stores. 

Some folks resent honeybees. They say the European honeybee has pushed native and wild bees aside.

Those of us who keep honeybees like how useful they are. We love and revere honey, and know that honeybees are vital to fruit trees, berry bushes, vegetable gardens, and nut groves. I see many native bees in the pollinator-friendly flowers I have planted, and the plants also attract butterflies, moths, and hummingbirds.

We can work together to bring back the bugs.

bees, pollinators, beekeeping, environment · nature · Uncategorized

Conversations with Bees

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Last week I watched a Zoom presentation by Vicki Hurd, author of Re-bugging the Planet: The Remarkable Things that Insects (and Other Invertebrates) Do – And Why We Need to Love Them. The author loves and admire insects, and lists numerous ways that insects help Mother Earth.

As a child, the author found insects fascinating. She watched them and tried to imagine what role they played in the ecosystem. Bees helped her decide that she wanted to study insects as a career. 

As a young girl, Hurd got a job helping with bee research. Her job was to count bees as they returned to the colony. Some people may have found this tedious—clicking a counter whenever a bee entered the hive, but she liked it. After a long time, a single bee began circling her head, making a different noise. Loud. Insistent. She interpreted the sound as, “Time’s up. This has gone on too long.” She stopped counting. Realizing that an insect could convey a message to her set her future course. 

In beekeeping classes, I’ve seen veteran beekeepers who work a hive suddenly stop and say, “That’s enough.  I need to close this hive.” The beekeeper can tell when bees are exasperated.    

Hurd says bees communicate not only with humans, but with other mammals, reptiles, other insects, and even fungi.

I have noticed something myself. I keep water on a stand near the hives. I put golf balls in the bowl to give bees a place to rest and drink, and I keep the water level low. Yet, on the first warm day in spring when bees emerge, some of them drown despite the golf-ball islands. That’s Day One. On Day Two, I find no dead bees, and none after that. It’s like the message has gone out. Don’t drink and dive.  

It’s gratifying when science confirms what little children and nature watchers already know. That species can talk to each other. A recent study in the UK demonstrated that bumble bees learn from each other. Cultural learning, they call it.

The researchers taught bumblebees to push a lever to open a box that held a reward. The knowledge spread through the colony.

The study involved ten bumblebee colonies. The researchers privately taught a single bumblebee to open a box that held a sugary solution. When they released the demonstrator bee back into its colony, the bee transmitted the information to others. The researchers saw that bees preferred their sisters to teach them. Even if they found a different solution on their own, the bees preferred to use the method others had demonstrated, and used that technique 98 percent of the time. In colonies where scientists didn’t place a demonstrator bee, the insects only managed to open the box a handful of times. 

One scientist expressed the hope this ability to learn from others could be helpful to colonies as bees adjust to changes in the world. Enterprising individuals who figure out new ways to carry on may be able to bring the rest of their colony along with them.