Flower Bee Killers

Despite their beauty, flowers can pose a grave danger to bees by providing a platform of parasites to visiting bees, a team of researchers has determined. Peter Graystock, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Entomology at the University of California, Riverside said he and his research team found four common honey bee and bumblebee parasites dispersed via flowers causing a honey bee disease and causing an emergent disease in honey bees and bumblebees. These parasites are known to cause, lethargy, dysentery, colony collapse, and queen death in heavily infected bees. Dr. Graystock describes the problem: "Visits from parasite-carrying bees can turn flowers into parasite platforms, we can say that it is likely that heavily visited flowers may become more 'dirty' with bee parasites, bumblebees can transport honey bee parasites." Flowers are hotspots for parasite spread between and within pollinator populations."