Bee Research and Education

Bee Research and Education. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

USDA continues to research problems facing bees. Andrew Ulsamer, USDA ARS Bee Research Labs says a world without bees would be very different.

ULSAMER: If there was a remarkable shortage of bees we would see our breakfast tables looking a lot less appetizing and we would be paying a lot more for the food that we did have. We basically - we would have cereal and that would be - we would have cereal and bread and that would be about it. A lot of our fruits and vegetables are dependent on pollinators whether it’s honey bees or another pollinator

Ulsamer says they are still researching the colony collapse disorder.

ULSAMER: Basically what happens is that we have what appears to be a healthy colony and over a period of a week or two the vast majority of its workforce leaves the hive and never comes back.

And there is always the on-going problem of parasites and viruses.

ULSAMER: They feed on the bees and in the process of feeding, they become infected by the viruses and then when they go and parasitize other bees they pass the viruses on to them. And once they pass the viruses on to the bees, then the bees become transmitters of the virus.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.