Honeybees Self-Medicate with Anti-Fungal Resin

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Propolis (yellow) lining the inside of a beehive.

Beekeepers would love to get rid of propolis, a sticky substance made of resins that bees use to line their hives, because it makes it hard to pry hives open. But propolis isn’t just gluing the hive together, according to a new study published in PLoS ONE—honeybees use it to fight off fungal infections and seek it out when their hives are infected.

Bees have to invest effort in hunting down the resins that make up propolis, which like nectar is foraged from plants. That means that every minute a bee is looking for resin is a minute it’s not looking for food. The trade-off is worth it, apparently, because propolis kills bacteria and fungi lurking in the colony.

In this new study, the authors looked at whether propolis helped stop a fungal infection called chalkbrood that kills larvae. When experimenters painted propolis extract on hives, these propolis-enriched hives had lower rates of chalkbrood infection. And when colonies got infected with chalkbrood, bees went looking for resins more often. That’s where things get interesting because the adult bees doing the foraging are not directly affected by chalkbrood—it only lurks in larvae—so the “self”-medication happens at the level of colony instead of the individual bee. Honey bees, which are eusocial insects, really act together to benefit the entire colony rather than just themselves.

Image via Wikimedia Commons / Abalg

Read more at: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/?p=36183#.Uf0saNJTCSo

Substances in honey increase detoxification gene expression, team finds

Research in the wake of Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious malady afflicting (primarily commercial) honey bees, suggests that pests, pathogens and pesticides all play a role. 

New research indicates that the honey bee diet influences the bees’ ability to withstand at least some of these assaults. Some components of the nectar and pollen grains bees collect to manufacture food to support the hive increase the expression of detoxification genes that help keep honey bees healthy. 

The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

University of Illinois professor of entomology May Berenbaum, who led the study, said that many organisms use a group of enzymes called cytochrome P450 monooxygenases to break down foreign substances such as pesticides and compounds naturally found in plants, known as phytochemicals. However, honey bees have relatively few genes dedicated to this detoxification process compared to other insect species, she said. 

“Bees feed on hundreds of different types of nectar and pollen, and are potentially exposed to thousands of different types of phytochemicals, yet they only have one-third to one-half the inventory of enzymes that break down these toxins compared to other species,” Berenbaum said. 

Determining which of the 46 P450 genes in the honey bee genome are used to metabolize constituents of their natural diet and which are used to metabolize synthetic pesticides became a “tantalizing scientific question” to her research team, Berenbaum said. 

“Every frame of honey (in the honey bee hive) is phytochemically different from the next frame of honey because different nectars went in to make the honey. If you don’t know what your next meal is going to be, how does your detoxification system know which enzymes to upregulate?” Berenbaum said. 

Research had previously shown that eating honey turns on detoxification genes that metabolize the chemicals in honey, but the researchers wanted to identify the specific components responsible for this activity. To do this, they fed bees a mixture of sucrose and powdered sugar, called bee candy, and added different chemical components in extracts of honey. They identified p-coumaric acid as the strongest inducer of the detoxification genes. 

“We found that the perfect signal, p-coumaric acid, is in everything that bees eat – it’s the monomer that goes into the macromolecule called sporopollenin, which makes up the outer wall of pollen grains. It’s a great signal that tells their systems that food is coming in, and with that food, so are potential toxins,” Berenbaum said. 

Her team showed that p-coumaric acid turns on not only P450 genes, but representatives of every other type of detoxification gene in the genome. This signal can also turn on honey bee immunity genes that code for antimicrobial proteins. 

According to Berenbaum, three other honey constituents were effective inducers of these detoxification enzymes. These components probably originate in the tree resins that bees use to make propolis, the “bee glue” which lines all of the cells and seals cracks within a hive. 

“Propolis turns on immunity genes – it’s not just an antimicrobial caulk or glue. It may be medicinal, and in fact, people use it medicinally, too,” Berenbaum said. 

Many commercial beekeepers use honey substitutes such as high-fructose corn syrup or sugar water to feed their colonies. Berenbaum believes the new research shows that honey is “a rich source of biologically active materials that truly matter to a bee.” 

She hopes that future testing and development will yield honey substitutes that contain p-coumaric acid so beekeepers can enhance their bees’ ability to withstand pathogens and pesticides. 

Although she doesn’t recommend that beekeepers “rush out and dump p-coumaric acid into their high fructose corn syrup,” she hopes that her team’s research can be used as the basis of future work aimed at improving bee health. 

“If I were a beekeeper, I would at least try to give them some honey year-round,” Berenbaum said, “because if you look at the evolutionary history of Apis mellifera, this species did not evolve with high fructose corn syrup. It is clear that honey bees are highly adapted to consuming honey as part of their diet.”


Read more at http://scienceblog.com/65330/substances-in-honey-increase-detoxification-gene-expression-team-finds/#lQQFHftritFxzZwm.99

Rakyat disaran rebut peluang industri lebah - Ismail Sabri

ISMAIL Sabri Yaakob (dua dari kanan) dan Mustafa Kamal Baharuddin (tiga dari kanan) melihat kaedah mengeluarkan madu dari sarang lebah ketika melawat gerai jualan di Pusat Pertanian Parit Botak, Batu Pahat, Johor, semalam. - BERNAMA

BATU PAHAT 27 Jun - Kementerian Pertanian dan Industri Asas Tani menyarankan masyarakat dan usahawan tani supaya menceburi industri lebah bagi mengurangkan jumlah import madu.

Menterinya, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob berkata, rakyat perlu merebut peluang untuk melabur dalam industri berkenaan kerana permintaannya semakin meningkat apabila setiap produk kesihatan, perubatan dan kosmetik menggunakan madu lebah.

Menurutnya, bagi memenuhi permintaan madu sebelum ini, negara perlu mengimportnya dari China, New Zealand dan Australia dengan nilai mencecah RM27 juta pada 2010 dan jumlah itu dijangka melonjakkan sehingga RM50 juta pada tahun ini.

"Sebab itu, kerajaan mahu rakyat menceburi industri lebah supaya mereka dapat menikmati hasilnya yang bukan sahaja daripada madu, sebaliknya produk hiliran yang turut mendapat permintaan tinggi.

"Untuk menarik minat rakyat, kementerian akan menyediakan satu pakej khas yang terdiri daripada latihan, pinjaman, sumbangan peralatan dan pemasaran produk di dalam dan luar nagara," katanya selepas merasmikan Hari Ladang Lebah di Pusat Pertanian Parit Botak, di sini hari ini.

Yang turut hadir ialah Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Pertanian dan Industri Asas Tani negeri, Ismail Mohamed dan Ketua Pengarah Pertanian, Datuk Mustafa Kamal Baharuddin.

Ismail Sabri berkata, pihaknya juga akan melakukan perbincangan dengan Agro Bank dan Tabung Ekonomi Kumpulan Usaha Niaga (TEKUN) untuk menyediakan pinjaman kepada usahawan lebah yang baharu.

Beliau memberitahu, bagi melahirkan usahawan baharu itu, Jabatan Pertanian ditugaskan untuk menyemai minat masyarakat terhadap bidang berkenaan.

"Jabatan Pertanian akan membuat kajian tentang minat usahawan baharu. Malah, mereka juga perlu membuat tinjauan bagi memperbesarkan lagi industri yang dijalankan usahawan sedia ada.

"Pada masa akan datang, kementerian akan menghantar pegawai Jabatan Pertanian untuk mengikuti kursus di negara pengeksport madu lebah supaya kita juga mahir dalam industri tersebut," katanya.

Artikel Penuh: http://www.utusan.com.my/utusan/Dalam_Negeri/20130628/dn_08/Rakyat-disaran-rebut-peluang-industri-lebah---Ismail-Sabri#ixzz2Yw4mEct9
© Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd 

MARDI kumpul 30 spesies kelulut

Oleh Mohd Sabran Md Sani

Tidak ramai menyedari, lebah kelulut mampu mendatangkan pendapatan lumayan walaupun serangga itu gemar menjadikan batang pokok sebagai habitat semula jadinya.

Kelulut sering disamakan dengan spesies penyengat tetapi ia mempunyai nilai tinggi dalam pengeluaran madu berkualiti yang kaya dengan antioksidan.

Khasiat madu kelulut dikatakan dapat mening­katkan metabolisme badan, menambahkan tenaga batin, menjaga kecantikan, memberi tenaga kepada wanita yang baru bersalin dan membantu merawat kecederaan dalaman.

Madu kelulut juga memperlahankan pertumbuhan sel kanser, mengecutkan kerada­ngan dan meningkatkan daya imunisasi tubuh.

KELULUT menghasilkan tiga jenis madu iaitu madu (kiri), propolis dan pollen.

Khasiatnya dalam dunia perubatan memang banyak malah ujian turut dilakukan penyelidik Institut Penyelidikan dan Kemajuan Pertanian Malaysia (MARDI) dan Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).

Di Malaysia terdapat kira-kira 30 spesies kelulut dan kebanyakannya ditemui di kawasan hutan.

Berbanding lebah yang hanya menghasil­kan madu, kelulut begitu unik kerana mengeluarkan tiga produk madu iaitu bebola madu, propolis dan pollen (debunga).

Melihat kepada pasaran madu kelulut, harganya mampu mencecah RM120 sebotol bagi 350 mililiter, sedangkan madu biasa dijual RM30 dalam kuantiti sama.

Pegawai Penyelidik MARDI, Mohd Fahimee Jaapar berkata, pihaknya giat mengumpulkan spesies kelulut di seluruh negara.

“Pada mulanya, kelulut digunakan MARDI sebagai agen pendebungaan. Kita mahu pokok yang ditanam berbuah dengan adanya agen pendebungaan iaitu kelulut. Bagi kami, pendebungaan adalah hasil pertama manakala madu dan propolis hasil kedua.

“Pemikiran bagi kebanyakan orang kampung, lebah kelulut tidak mempunyai madu, tetapi kajian mendapati serangga itu mengeluarkan madu se­tanding madu lebah,” katanya.

Semua spesies kelulut dikumpulkan sejak 2007 dan kini diternak di dua kawasan khas di MARDI iaitu di Bahagian Pendebungan dan kebun buah-buahan.

“Ada 15 spesies lebah kelulut dikumpulkan dan hanya dua spesies yang dikomersialkan iaitu jenis ‘Trigona Itama’ dan ‘Trigona Thoracica’,” katanya.

Mohd Fahimee dibantu rakan setugas iaitu Penolong Pegawai Penyelidik, Zulidzham Mohd Sani dan Pembantu Penyelidik Kanan, Hamdan Sipon.

Beliau berkata, hasil kajian dilakukan mendapati kelulut menghasilkan ‘ramuan’ untuk perubatan alternatif.

“Kelulut banyak ditemui di kawasan kampung terutama di negeri yang mempunyai pokok rambutan tua seperti di Melaka, Perak, Kedah dan Kelantan.

“Penebangan hutan secara berleluasa turut me­nyebabkan penghijrahan spesies terbabit ke kawasan kampung,” katanya.

Menurutnya, sarang kelulut dipindahkan dari tempat asalnya dalam batang kayu ke dalam kotak kayu buatan dan diternak di lapangan.

“Anak kelulut dimasukkan ke dalam kotak khas bagi menghasilkan madu.

“Setakat ini, lebah kelulut yang diternak menghasilkan propolis, pollen dan madu,” katanya.

Katanya, kelulut tidak menyengat, namun serang­ga itu hanya menye­rang orang pertama yang mendekatinya.

“Kelulut sama dengan lebah yang akan mengeluarkan ‘feromon’. Ketika ada bahaya, seekor lebah akan mengeluarkan sejenis bahan kimia dikenali feromon untuk memanggil rakannya.

“Bau berkenaan biasa­nya akan ditinggalkan pada musuh pertama, namun jika ramai, semua akan diserang,” katanya.

Menurutnya, setiap spesies kelulut menghasilkan bentuk sarang berbeza.

“Sistem lebah kelulut unik kerana setiap sarang akan ada tiang. Tiang ini dibina daripada propolis atau damar. Penutup sarang yang terdapat dalam koloni terbabit digunakan sebagai pertahanan diri,” katanya.

Katanya, madu kelulut mempunyai lebih antioksidan.

“Kelulut mengeluarkan propolis yang mengandungi antibiotik semula jadi, antimikrob, antifu­ngus dan antikanser.

“Sebab itu sarangnya tidak ada fungus. Ini kerana kelulut menggunakan resin daripada pokok, diproses di dalam badannya bagi mencegah pembiakan mikrob,” katanya.

Kajian di MARDI menunjukkan madu kelulut mempunyai asid fenilpropanaoik, asid protocatechuik dan asid 4-hidroksifenilasetik yang tergolong dalam kumpulan asid fenolik bebas.

“Ia boleh bertindak sebagai antikanser, antitumor dan antioksidan untuk diserap dalam tubuh manusia.

“Selain berupaya menurunkan glukosa, mengu­rangkan kerosakan fungsi ginjal dan me­ningkatkan ketebalan trabekular tulang yang menguatkan tulang melalui penyerapan,” katanya.

Kajian mendapati, kelulut boleh melakukan pendebungaan di Rumah Hijau berbanding lebah.

Katanya, pe­rancangan masa depan, Bahagian Mekanisasi dan Automasi MARDI membantu untuk mengeluarkan mesin penye­dut madu yang fleksibel dan mudah alih.

MARDI juga akan menawarkan kursus penternakan kelulut kepada orang ramai yang berminat untuk terbabit dalam industri itu.

“Bagi mereka yang mahu menternak kelulut, Unit Promosi dan Teknologi Mardi menawarkan kursus jangka pendek selama dua hari termasuk makan dan minum dengan kos RM600.

“Ia membabitkan 30 peratus teori dan selebihnya amali termasuk mengajar cara membelah kayu bagi memasukkan anak kelulut ke dalam kotak,” katanya.

Katanya, ada pe­serta kursus memperoleh pendapatan kira-kira RM10,000 sebulan dengan menternak kelulut secara komersial.

“Biasanya harga bagi sebatang kayu mengandungi anak kelulut dijual kepada penternak sekitar RM200 manakala kelulut di dalam kotak pula dijual sekitar RM500 hingga RM700.

“Bagaimanapun ke­banyakan penternak mendapatkan bekalan anak daripada pembalak dan harganya lebih rendah,” katanya.

sUMBER: http://www.hmetro.com.my/articles/MARDIkumpul30spesieskelulut/Article

Sperm Banks For Bees Help Preserve Biodiversity And Create New Breeds

Image Credit: Thinkstock.com

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Beekeepers around the United States have been experiencing an unusually high level of colony die-off and a group of Washington State University (WSU) researchers has just announced a plan to preserve the survival and biodiversity of honey bee colonies by creating a sperm bank for the tiny insects.

Using liquid nitrogen to preserve their samples, the WSU scientists said they will begin to collect bee semen from colonies across the US and Europe. They also say they plan to use these samples to produce more diverse, resilient honey bee subspecies.

According to Steve Sheppard, professor of entomology at WSU, bees face threats from invasive mites, pesticides and the agricultural practice of monoculture that offers little of the nutritional variety that bees need. Experts say that a combination of these factors typically plays a major role in a colony’s collapse.

In 1922, UK entomologists identified tracheal mites as the likely cause of widespread bee deaths on England’s Isle of Wight, causing the US to restrict the importation of live honey bees. Today, entomologists say the import ban has resulted in a limited honey bee gene pool.

“Honey bees, Apis mellifera, have 28 recognized subspecies – in Europe, Africa, and Asia, the general vicinity of where honey bees are thought to have originated,” said Sheppard.

Many entomologists have said these subspecies could be used to breed bees that are resistant to deadly mites or the effects of a limited diet.

In 2008, the USDA permitted WSU researchers to import honey bee semen for breeding purposes after the samples had passed a strict screening test for viruses.

Because beekeepers in different US climate zones have different demands of their bees, Sheppard and his colleagues identified three different subspecies for import. Southern beekeepers often want fast-breeding bees to provide pollination for early-blooming crops, while northern beekeepers want slow-breeding bees since young bees are susceptible to sudden cold snaps that often happen in the spring.

For warm-weather beekeepers, the WSU team collected semen from Italian bees, which are bred for that country’s more temperate climate. Sheppard and colleagues collected semen from Carniolan bees of the eastern Alps and Caucasian bees from the nation of Georgia for northern beekeepers.

According to WSU researcher Susan Cobey, applying a small amount of pressure to a mature drone’s abdomen will release the semen, which can then be collected in a syringe. The semen will remain viable at room temperature for up to 14 days, giving the team plenty of time to either freeze the sample or inseminate a queen.

While the WSU researchers are putting years of planning and work into their effort to boost bee biodiversity, some scientists say bees’ contribution to pollination and, therefore, to agriculture in general has been overstated.

According to the Keith S. Delaplane, a professor of entomology at the University of Georgia, the phrase “honey bees are responsible for every third bite of food we eat” is an example of “hyperbole” regarding the role of honey bees in agricultural pollination.

“I suspect that even in 1976 this estimate was generous and applicable only to the most affluent economies where hay-powered beef and dairy products, oilseeds, and fruits make up a significant fraction of the diet,” he said.

A recent analysis by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) found that about 5 to 8 percent of global food production is attributable to animal pollination.

Source: Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online

Killer Bee Attack: Science Explains Man's Death

Africanized honey bees, aka "killer bees," have spread throughout the southern United States.
CREDIT: Simon_g | Shutterstock.com 

A Texas man died after being attacked by a swarm of Africanized honeybees, sometimes called "killer bees."

Larry Goodwin, 62, was driving a tractor near his home south of Waco when he disturbed a pile of wood that contained a hive of the notoriously aggressive bees; eight people have been killed by the bees since 1990, the Waco Tribunereports.

"You can't believe how bad they are. They make me want to get out of this business," Allen Miller, owner of Bees Be Gone, who later destroyed the hive, told the Tribune. [Image Gallery: Honeybee Scouts Find Food]

"They can get up under your clothes where no other insect can go," Miller said. "In a hive of ordinary European bees, about 10 percent will attack if the hive is threatened, but with African bees, all of them attack you."

Eight to 10 stings per pound of body weight are considered lethal, according to the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. Goodwin's family members told KCENTV.com that there was no part of his body that was not covered in bee stings.

When science goofs

T

he introduction of Africanized honeybees into the Western Hemisphere was the result of a scientific experiment gone awry, according to a Texas A&M University report.

In 1956, Warwick Kerr, a honeybee geneticist with the University of São Paulo, Brazil, imported African bees (Apis mellifera scutellata) to study. His intention was to selectively introduce traits such as disease resistance and faster reproductive rate into native honeybees.

But a handful of the African bees escaped into the wild, where they interbred with native bees to produce bees with traits primarily derived from their dominant African forbearers (traits of the more docile native bees tended to be recessive and therefore lost), leading to the term "Africanized honey bees." [Sting, Bite & Destroy: Nature's 10 Biggest Pests]

The bees spread rapidly from Brazil and are now found throughout South and Central America. Hives have been reported in the United States in Florida and across the South and Southwest into Southern California.

If attacked, run

Though the bees aren't predatory, they become very aggressive when defending their hive, and minor disturbances like a lawn mower or a moving car — even as far away as 100 feet (30 meters) — can trigger an attack.

And Africanized honeybees aren't picky about where they build a hive. Old tires, junk piles, building eaves, cement blocks, upturned flower pots and even empty soda cans have been occupied by the bees, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In the event of a bee attack, victims are advised to run as fast as they can toward an enclosed area like a car or building; even though some bees will follow, most will be shut out.

Protect your face and head as much as possible from stings by covering your head with a shirt or jacket. And do not jump into water (such as a swimming pool) to escape the bees — they will wait at the surface for their victim to come up for air, according to Texas A&M University.

Stings from Africanized honeybees aren't more venomous than stings from native honeybees, but victims tend to be stung dozens or hundreds of times.

Goodwin, who was reportedly stung more than 1,000 times, was pronounced dead at the scene. A woman and her daughter who tried to help were also hospitalized with dozens of stings, KCENTV.com reported; firefighters who responded to a 911 call were also attacked.

One redeeming quality

Researchers have noticed that Africanized honeybees seem to be isolated in their current range by temperature and rainfall, according to the USDA.

They cannot survive a cold winter, and they seem to dislike steady, year-long rainfall. "Rainfall over 55 inches, distributed evenly throughout the year, is almost a complete barrier to [Africanized honey bee] spread," entomologist José D. Villa of the Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Research Unit in Baton Rouge, La., told Agricultural Research magazine..

While attacks by the bees remain very rare, Miller told KCENTV.com that he's seen at least five cases of Africanized hives in the past month, more than he usually sees all year.

As loathed as they are, the Africanized bees might have one redeeming quality: They could hold the key to solving the problem of bee colony collapse disorder, a deadly syndrome that's wiping out native bee populations throughout North America and Europe.

Though the Africanized bees can carry the Varroa mites that have been implicated in colony collapse disorder, they have considerable resistance to the mites, unlike native honeybees. If researchers could isolate the trait that gives the Africanized bees their resistance, they may be able to save native honeybee populations.

Follow Marc Lallanilla on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

Read more at: http://www.livescience.com/37094-man-dies-in-killer-bee-attack-africanized-honey-bees.html

Third of US honey bees killed last winter, threatening food supply

Honey beesShutterstock

Nearly one in three commercial honeybee colonies in the United States died or disappeared last winter, an unsustainable decline that threatens the nation's food supply.

Multiple factors -- pesticides, fungicides, parasites, viruses and malnutrition -- are believed to cause the losses, which were officially announced today by a consortium of academic researchers, beekeepers and Department of Agriculture scientists.

"We're getting closer and closer to the point where we don't have enough bees in this country to meet pollination demands," said entomologist Dennis vanEngelstorp of the University of Maryland, who led the survey documenting the declines.

Beekeepers lost 31 percent of their colonies in late 2012 and early 2013, roughly double what's considered acceptable attrition through natural causes. The losses are in keeping with rates documented since 2006, when beekeeper concerns prompted the first nationwide survey of honeybee health. Hopes raised by drops in rates of loss to 22 percent in 2011-2012 were wiped out by the new numbers.

The honeybee shortage nearly came to a head in March in California, when there were barely enough bees to pollinate the almond crop.

Had the weather not been ideal, the almonds would have gone unpollinated -- a taste, as it were, of a future in which honeybee problems are not solved.

"If we want to grow fruits and nuts and berries, this is important," said vanEngelstorp. "One in every three bites [of food consumed in the US] is directly or indirectly pollinated by bees."

Scientists have raced to explain the losses, which fall into different categories. Some result from what's called colony collapse disorder, a malady first reported in 2006 in which honeybees abandon their hives and vanish. Colony collapse disorder, or CCD, subsequently became a public shorthand for describing bee calamities.

Most losses reported in the latest survey, however, don't actually fit the CCD profile. And though CCD is largely undocumented in western Europe, honeybee losses there have also been dramatic. In fact, CCD seems to be declining, even as total losses mount. The honeybees are simply dying.

"Even if CCD went away, we'd still have tremendous losses," said entomologist Diana Cox-Foster at Pennsylvania State University. "CCD losses are like the straw that breaks the camel's back. The system has many other issues."

Studying these issues isn't easy. In real-world agricultural settings, it's hard to run the rigorous, every-last-variable-controlled experiments on which definitive conclusions are founded. These experiments can be run in labs and small-scale test fields, but whether those accurately reflect real-world complexity is debated.

Amidst the uncertainties, scientific attention has settled on a group of culprits, the most high-profile of which is a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids. These were developed in the 1990s, rushed to market with minimal studies of potential harms, and subsequently became the world's most-used pesticides.

In the last several years, it's become evident that neonicotinoids are extremely toxic to honeybees and, even in small, sub-lethal doses, make bees more vulnerable to disease. The European Union recently limited neonicotinoid use, and the US Environmental Protection Agency is reviewing their use.

Pesticide companies have fought the restrictions, arguing that neonicotinoids are unfairly blamed. Most non-industry scientists say the question isn't whether neonicotinoids are a problem, but where they fit into a constellation of problems.

"Different studies indicate that this class of pesticide is rather harmful to the bees," said honeybee pathologist Cédric Alaux of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, who said the EU's restrictions are sensible. "However, we should not be too naive and think that it will solve the bee problem."

Just as important as neonicotinoids, and perhaps more so, are Varroa destructor mites. First detected in the United States in 1987, the mites weaken bees by sucking their hemolyph, the insect analogue of blood, and also transmit viruses and other parasites. A recent USDA report called Varroa "the single most detrimental pest of honey bees."

Read more at: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-05/9/winter-honey-bee-collapse