Re: bees and mites

Liane Cochran-Stafira (lcochran@midway.uchicago.edu)
Fri, 26 Jul 1996 18:02:42 -0500

Hi Zachary - As far as I recall, the mites enter the air passageways of the
bee's body and interfere with the respiratory system. There was an article
in "Science" in the last year or so that about the plight of the honeybee.
BTW, the honeybee we're all used to seeing is actually a European import
brought here ages ago to help pollinate crops. An interesting short article
in "Time" a couple of weeks ago talked about the resurgence in interest in
our native pollinators now that honeybees are few and far between.

As others have noted, it seemed like the bumblebees really took off around
our house last year as well. Initially, I thought it might be a response to
the loss of the honeybees, a release from competition. I checked this out
with some of the entomologists on the ecology listserve, but no one had
heard of any definitive studies on competition between native bumblebees and
the imported honeybees. I haven't seen many bees at all this summer, but
from what I've read, the extremely cold weather this past winter really
dealt a death blow to many species of insects. It may take a while for the
bumblebees populations to recover.

Liane Cochran-Stafira
University of Chicago
Department of Ecology and Evolution
1101 East 57th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60637
phone: 312-702-1930
fax: 312-702-9740
e-mail: lcochran@midway.uchicago.edu

>
>Does anyone know exactly how these mites are killing off honney bees?
>Just curious.
>
>Not a single bee went anywhere near my Sarracenia flowers. So much for
>fear of hybridizing.
>
>--Zachary--
>
>