February 27, 2019
Dear Subscribers:
The cold spell reported last month for this neck of the woods metamorphosed into record heat the third week of February. Gainesville experienced an eleven degree above normal average, topping out whopping 91 degrees F. on February 23. As of this date, 49 record highs has been reported across the state. We should probably get used to fairly drastic weather events like this going forward, looking at this pattern as a “new normal.” The big unknown about all this is how the plants will respond, which will no doubt affect honey bee behavior. If this is all we have to worry about, we can consider ourselves lucky when looking around the globe. Abnormal weather elsewhere is much more pronounced, especially dire is the situation in Australia, known for its droughts, where a six-year event has wreaked havoc:
“An unusual extended period of heatwaves over much of Australia began in early December 2018 and continued through most of January 2019. Whilst the heatwave had three peak phases – in late December and early January, mid-January and late January, each of which saw numerous records set – above-average temperatures persisted over most of the continent for several weeks. Many locations, particularly in South Australia, inland New South Wales and parts of central Australia, experienced their highest temperatures on record, and records were also set for the duration of the heatwave in many regions. Both December and January were the hottest on record averaged over Australia. January was especially hot, breaking the previous record for the hottest month on record in Australia by nearly a degree. It was also the hottest month on record for every State and Territory except South Australia and Western Australia, with New South Wales more than 2 °C above its previous record. 21 of the 24 reporting ACORN-SAT locations in New South Wales had their hottest January on record. These widespread heatwaves during December and January followed an extreme heatwave that affected the tropical Queensland coast during late November 1 as the heatwave conditions began an anticlockwise loop around the country.”
As I have mentioned in the past, long-range record keeping has often been a key to understanding how plants and honey bees are related. One study in particular as part of the Treatise on Modern Honey Bee Management is a case in point.
“An important conclusion drawn from the Minnesota study described above is the value of extended observation. Without information like this it would be impossible to develop an apicultural calendar. The same is true for other aspects of the beekeeping operation.
“Unfortunately, accelerated climate change is revealing that the conventional wisdom of the apicultural calendar as being invariant can no longer be relied on. It is at risk of being overturned because the average bloom time is no longer the same, but appears to be moving much more radically than in the past. The could spell bad news for many plants and the animals that depend on them. A citizen science project looks specifically at nectar collection within this context, emphasizing the Monarch Butterfly migration, which currently appears to be in trouble.
Although principally an academic, I consider myself in reality a journalist. As such I am buffeted by the numerous journalistic changes that are for want of a better metaphor “blowin’ in the wind.” Research in an effort to be as informed as possible on topics relevant to my field (now perhaps best referred to as “honey bee health”) is becoming more and more an arduous task with no end.
A recent article in The New Yorker provides perspective on this conundrum: “In the past half century, and especially in the past two decades, journalism itself—the way news is covered, reported, written, and edited—has changed, including in ways that have made possible the rise of fake news, and not only because of mergers and acquisitions, and corporate ownership, and job losses, and Google Search, and Facebook and BuzzFeed.”
My journalism is not on the same level as most of those discussed in The New Yorker article, but suffers from the same characteristics. The releases I find coming to my inbox are overwhelming. The field is, the article concludes, “as addled as an addict, gaunt, wasted, and twitchy, its pockets as empty as its nights are sleepless. It’s faster than it used to be, so fast. It’s also edgier, and needier, and angrier. It wants and it wants and it wants. But what does it need?”
This boils down to something that many, including myself, are just now realizing. In many cases, algorithms not humans are writing the news. For a closer look at this and other concepts the Internet has wrought in journalism, see Alan Rusbridger’s Breaking News: The Remaking of Journalism and Why It Matters Now. The information in this book is the inspiration for my continual search to find a better way to inform readers so they too are not overwhelmed and perhaps by the same token, turned off. As such I have chosen most recently a “digest” format via Patreon.com. This allows for parsing of information and provides a modest way for me to fund my web-based activities, which require financial resources. In addition, I am also going to attempt to ferret out the sources of releases I refer to. The next story shows some of this effort.
Are honey bees and plastic straws the proverbial “straw men” when it comes to environmental impact by humans? It sometimes seems so. Naomi Wicks a student at Texas State University concludes: “The tokenization of bees enables people to slap a sticker on their Nalgene water bottle and move on with their lives while ignoring the systems in place that continue to destroy the planet. Studies show plastic bags produce the smallest environmental footprint according to Stanford Magazine, and student Claire Thompson, yet are targeted by many as the culprit for global warming and the ever-increasing amount of plastic in our oceans and landfills. The same can be said for plastic straws.
“All things considered, banning plastic straws will do little more than getting a bee tattoo and sharing environmental memes will, but it’s worth doing anyway. The social shame of drinking through a straw is something, but it’s not everything. Small actions for the betterment of Earth must be done in conjunction with tangible practices and holding the biggest perpetrators accountable for their waste.”
The finding that Varroa mites feed on honey bee fat bodies and not on hemolymph (bee blood) is forcing new areas of study. The research reported by Dennis O’Brien (USDA public affairs) concludes: “Varroa mites have been widely thought to feed on the hemolymph of honey bees (Apis mellifera) because of studies conducted in the 1970’s which used outdated technology. But today’s collaborative study, by University of Maryland and ARS researchers at the ARS Electron and Confocal Microscopy Unit, offers proof of the mite’s true feeding behavior. Through the use of electron microscopy, the researchers were able to locate feeding wounds on the bee caused by the mites, which were located directly above the bee’s fat body tissue. The images represent the first direct evidence that Varroa mites feed on adult bees, not just the larvae and pupae.
“In addition, University of Maryland researchers conducted feeding studies and found that Varroa mites that were fed a diet of fat body tissue survived significantly longer and produced more eggs than mites fed hemolymph. The results show, mites fed a hemolymph-only diet were comparable to those that were starved. Thus, proving conclusively that the Varroa mite feeds primarily on the fat body consumed from bees.
“The results are expected to help scientists develop more effective pesticides and other treatments to help bees cope with a mite known to spread at least five viruses. They also help explain why Varroa mites have such detrimental effects on honey bees, weakening their immune systems, and making it harder for them to store protein from pollen and survive through the winter.”
One of the authors the study, Samuel Ramsey, was recently interviewed on Insidethehive.tv , which is found on the Youtube.com platform. He points out that the fat body is also a likely target for other organisms, including an Asian honey bee mite Tropilaelaps clareae, which is considered a generalist feeder that may attack a number of organisms. This mite, thus, could become a much more potent parasite/predator than Varroa, which can only reproduce on its honey bee host.
An interesting development in the situation surrounding RoundUp (glyphosate) has come to my attention: “RoundUp cases are being reviewed for individuals diagnosed with any of the following cancers:
Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
B-Cell Lymphoma
Follicular Lymphoma
Other Lymphatic Cancers (contact us for details)
Claims In The Roundup Lawsuit
“Many victims, including farm workers, landscape professionals, golf course greenkeepers, and private homeowners have already come forward to file claims against Monsanto after being exposed to glyphosate. These claims allege that the company failed to adequately research the effects of the product and its connection to cancer.”
Glyphosate’s role in cancer is still debatable, although the European Union has banned it use in certain situations along with other neonicotinoid pesticides. See the digest post on this subject published a year ago.
As noted in last month’s newsletter contribution to the digest: “The organizers of the 46th Apimondia in Montreal (8-12 September) are pulling out all the stops to achieve a good attendance. An Ambassador Program has been created to jump start registrations. Ambassador-recruited attendees get a ten percent break on registration. This promotion expires 25 March 2019. Use the following password (APIAMBPROG2019) and code (0031) to take advantage of this offer . See full details of the program here.
The Scientific Program will cover a wide range of themes, grouped within the seven Apimondia Standing Commissions: apitherapy, bee health, bee biology, beekeeping economy, pollination and bee flora, rural development, and technology/equality. New to the Montréal Congress is the addition of ”Cross-Cutting” symposia which will encompass topics spanning the purview of two or more of the standing commissions.
“Highlights among the many symposia at the Montréal Congress will include: Advances in Honey Bee Genomics, the Impact of Pesticides on Bees, Breeding for Mite and Disease Resistance, the Detection and Prevention of Honey Fraud, Technical Innovations in Beekeeping, Honey Bee Nutrition, the Status and Conservation of Pollinators, Treatment-Free Beekeeping as well as Citizen Science and Bees.
The Montréal Congress will also host two symposia sponsored by the OIE, the World Organization for Animal Health, on topics related to bee diseases, pests and the world-wide movement of bee stock.
“In addition to symposia, the convention have formally-organized round tables which address emerging matters of interest. Round tables permit the interchange of ideas between audience members and selected panelists. Examples include: the Social Impact of Bees, Beekeeping with Stingless Bees and Honey Adulteration.”
Eight specialized workshops are tentatively scheduled. Two of interest to most that are free include integrating beehives in the city and how to create a successful beekeeping development project. Both have an enrollment limit of 100 people sign up during the registration process. Several others with more limited participation will provide certificates of completion for a fee. I look forward to seeing everyone in one of the oldest cities on the North American continent.
A report from Entomology Today looks at pesticides in pollen: “We have been measuring honey bee (Apis mellifera) exposure to pesticides in pollen since 2007 by putting honey bee hives in different habitats, collecting pollen using a pollen trap, and then measuring pesticide residues in the pollen using high-pressure liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. A pollen trap is a clever device, invented by beekeepers, which forces each foraging worker bee returning to the hive to travel through a screen. The screen removes the pollen pellets from the bee’s pollen baskets on her hind legs, whereupon the pellets are collected onto a smaller-mesh screen. Ideally, the result is a collection of pollen pellets, of fairly uniform size, each representing the pollen collected on a single foraging trip by a worker bee.
“In a study on pesticide exposure routes in honey bees, researchers used chemical analysis of pollen and the keen eye of a palynologist—an expert in identifying pollen microscopically—to track pesticide in bee-collected pollen to a source plant genus. A sample with a particularly high level of pesticide traces in the study was identified as coming from plants in the genus Spiraea. The researchers were able to confirm that the staff of the plant nursery where the test hives were located had applied pesticide to Spiraea just before and during the pollen-sampling period.
“In 2015, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection funded us to put hives at three large commercial ornamental plant nurseries for one growing season. At the time, consumers and environmental groups across the country were concerned that ornamental plants treated with neonicotinoid insecticides during production could pose risks by providing insecticidal nectar and pollen to bees visiting these plants later placed in landscapes. In general we found neonicotinoids in the range of 1–4 parts per billion (ppb) in the pollen collected at the nurseries: not much different from those we found in other environments around Connecticut. However, the exception was a series of pollen samples collected at one nursery during the month of August. One sample contained 305 ppb of thiamethoxam and 31 ppb of clothianidin, and several other samples had 10–20 times the average found for these neonicotinoids.”
The results of the research, using a novel combination of techniques concluded : “This study is the first to trace highly toxic pollen collected by honey bees to a single plant genus. This method of tracking high toxicity pollen samples back to potential source plants could identify additional high-risk combinations of pesticide application methods and timing, movement into pollen, and attractiveness to bees that would be difficult to identify through modeling each of the contributing factors.”
In a post on GMOs in the beekeeping digest at Patron.com , I mention the Washington Post’s columnist Michael Gerson’s comments:
“In keeping with our era of ideological boycotts, I will no longer be purchasing Kind bars. Or Barilla pasta. Or Triscuit crackers. Or Del Monte diced tomatoes. Or Nutro dog food.
“A one-person boycott, of course, is really just a change in your shopping list. But the companies that produce these brands are guilty of crimes against rationality. All advertise on their packaging, in one way or another, that they don’t contain GMOs — genetically modified organisms. Walking down the aisle of my supermarket, I could have picked many other examples. Some food companies seem to be saying that GMO ingredients are not even fit for your dog.
“My boycott is rooted in the fact that there is no reputable scientific evidence that direct genetic modification — instead of slower genetic modification through selective breeding — has any health effects of any kind. None.”
Mr. Gerson discusses the book Seeds of Science by Mark Lynas: concluding: “Lynas has carefully avoided writing a screed. He shows considerable patience for the world view of his former allies: a preference for the small and natural, a fear that agricultural technology results in centralization and increased corporate power.”
Fortunately, we get to hear Mr. Lynas himself in January 5, 2018 at the Oxford Farming Conference provide a nice summary of the essence of his book, concluding: “So that’s my peace plan. To recap:
1. Environmentalists accept the science of GMO safety, and scientists in return need to accept that politics matter in how scientific innovations are deployed.
2. We drop national GMO bans and instead allow fully informed choices to be made by consumers in the marketplace via rigorous labelling and full traceability.
3. We all get over the Monsanto obsession but make a much more serious effort to start getting off the chemical treadmill and moving farming onto more sound ecological principles.
4. We agree to support public sector and non-corporate uses of genetic engineering where these can clearly contribute to environmental sustainability and the public interest.
5. We support all forms of agriculture that aim to find ways towards greater sustainability. Let a hundred flowers bloom.
6. We stop the name-calling. Let’s avoid using the term anti-science in particular. Anti-GMO activists are not opposing the scientific method in general, they are opposing a particular technological innovation.
7. Let’s make ethical objections to genetic engineering explicit and in the process recognise real-world tradeoffs about where we do and don’t use this technology.
“Let’s also continue to work together to build a shared vision for where we want food and farming to be in the 21st century. To me, this vision would include feeding the 800 million people who are hungry. Tolerating this situation is a moral outrage that surely dwarfs all others in this debate.
“This vision also includes tackling climate change, and moving towards a sustainable farming that eschews chemicals and protects the soil. But we also need to continue improving yields so that we can feed a growing population while peaking and reducing farmland use. Spared land can be protected for its biodiversity value and where possible devoted to rewilding.
“So let’s stop fighting, and let’s start uniting. To borrow words from Jo Cox, we have far more in common than that which divides us.”
This month’s Bee-L discussion list includes 25 messages on the subject “AFB Spring or Autumn,” discussing American foulbrood diagnosise. An addition 53 messages listing numerous “Helpful Hints” for beekeepers.
As always, check the latest extension efforts at the Bee Health Extension site. See a list of Varroa videos by the Honey Bee Health Coalition. Check out the page showing the biology of small hive beetle. In conjunction with this topic, see a recent release from Coloss.org on attempting to stop this invasive pest.
One hundred forty three units of Storey’s Guide to Keeping Honey Bees, second edition were sold January 21, 2018 through February 17, 2019. Pittsburg, PA led the way.
From the editorial endorsements:
“A well-balanced and extremely thorough guide for new beekeepers.” — Hilary Kearney, Girl Next Door Honey
Malcolm T. Sanford
https://beekeep.info
