Technocrat

Beetle and Yeast Responsible for Colony Collapse Disorder?

bill_mcgonigle
Sun May 13 11:09:57 -0700 2007
Biology.
manage

New research suggests that Colony Collapse Disorder may be triggered by an infestation of an African beetle, introduced to the US in 1998, which is sensitive to the bees' alarm pheromone. The beetle is attracted to the hives and then litters the hive with a type of yeast which produces the bee alarm pheromone in great quantities, attracting more beetles and confusing the bees to the point they abandon the colony. Scientists are working on developing a trap for the beetles.

From the research summary:

Recently, an invasive pest of honeybees, the Small Hive Beetle was introduced into North America. Beetles invade hives and feed on pollen, bee brood, and ruin honey with their feces. ... Scientists at the Center for Medical Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology, USDA, ARS, in Gainesville Florida in collaboration with scientists at the University of Florida and Pennsylvania State University have discovered that the beetles are attracted to honeybee alarm pheromones. They also isolated a yeast vectored by the beetles which, when grown on bee collected pollen produces the bee alarm pheromones. European bees are less responsive to alarm pheromones and less aggressive in repelling intruders than the original host of the beetle, African honeybees, and, fail to recognize the beetle invasion until it is too late to avoid colony collapse. The scientists are currently using this knowledge to develop effective control programs for the beetle using in hive traps baited with these alarm pheromones.

Correlation of the beetles' presence with CCD has also been independently observed by beekeepers . An interview with Peter Teal, research director, can be heard on Quirks & Quarks in either mp3 or ogg format.

Beetle and Yeast Responsible for Colony Collapse Disorder?
Spider
Sun May 13 21:38:04 -0700 2007
 manage
Interesting.  www.bugwood.org has some info.  Also picture of the little b....

so this means...

zogger
Sun May 13 22:11:51 -0700 2007
 manage
...until such a time as they develop the anti-anti missile missile beetle repellent, the african killer bees will have even less trouble spreading across the nation.

Swell, just swell. Just ducky. And this will cause a lot of lost crop production by next year if the colony collapses continue, because the bees still need the smell for "other" emergencies, so you can't eliminate it, else they will fall prey to other than the beetles. Fail to get rid of it though, the beetle wins. The bees got NO chance..for the regular honeybees, it's a catch 22 for them. I mean, this could get into the "serious brand bad news" level. I would be hard pressed to name a stock critter more important than honeybees.

Dumb question though- how did all these other beekeepers not notice the little beetles? All the original reports said they couldn't find anything unusual, and you'd think a beetle would stand out in the colony as in -> "hey vern, look- a not-bee!"

My guess is they'll have to do something similar like they do with the med fruit fly, introduce ten buhzillion sterile males into the area around the beehives, try to breed the beetles out.

so this means...
bill_mcgonigle
Mon May 14 09:56:01 -0700 2007
 manage
Dumb question though- how did all these other beekeepers not notice the little beetles? All the original reports said they couldn't find anything unusual, and you'd think a beetle would stand out in the colony as in -> "hey vern, look- a not-bee!"

I was wondering the same thing. I also saw reports about the beetles not being in Europe (where there is CCD), but then some Googling suggested they were.

I figured the author must have a good line of reasoning on this, and deserved the benefit of the doubt, but I'll send him an e-mail and see if he has any answers.
so this means...
bill_mcgonigle
Mon May 14 09:59:36 -0700 2007
 manage
Dumb question though- how did all these other beekeepers not notice the little beetles? All the original reports said they couldn't find anything unusual, and you'd think a beetle would stand out in the colony as in -> "hey vern, look- a not-bee!"

Just one thought - if the beetles were chased out but left their yeast behind to multiply then you might see the CCD symptom.

yep

zogger
Tue May 15 21:53:54 -0700 2007
 manage
that could be it. Makes sense.

Interesting aside, according to a little blog post I read, organic bee keepers are not suffering this colony collapse deal. Let me see if I can find it again...

organic beekeeping safer

Just reporting, I have no verification for this. I certainly hope they come up with a solution though. As an aside, beekeeping was another farm "thing" I wanted to add to my independence list of things to do. I just need to first invent the 30 hour day...

yep
bill_mcgonigle
Tue May 15 22:03:55 -0700 2007
 manage
Interesting link - thanks. Let me know when you get the time machine working. I'll buy two.
 

Do you have questions about the site? Write to bruce at perens.com . List of all articles we've ever published. Source Code Developer's Documentation RSS XML Sitemap XML News Sitemap Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict Valid CSS! [Valid RSS]