Disappearing Bees 1
Bee colonies have always been vulnerable to disease because they’re densely packed environments through which infections can spread rapidly but in recent years the threats have grown. One of the biggest has been the varroa mite, a tiny insect that feeds off the bodily liquids of bees in the hive, especially in their larval stages. The mite can be contained with chemicals, but increasingly, the mites are developing resistance to the chemicals used against them.
Other damaging hive invaders may well be driven by climate change, include the small hive beetle, the parasitic brood mite, and the Asian hornet. But the biggest fear of all concerns Colony Collapse Disorder.
Here’s Bill Ahaus, Secretary-Treasurer of the Idaho Honey Industry Association. “We thought this Colony Collapse Disorder or Disappearing Disease was some sort of a new virus or some sort of epidemic that was killing our bees and the research is pointing to other factors that may be causing our bees to go downhill and one of the big ones that’s been discussed the last 2 years has been bee nutrition.”
Ahaus says that there are very few wild bee colonies found in nature…that most bees are domesticated and working farms. More on that tomorrow.
