- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Even though scientists have been studying colony collapse disorder of honeybees for five years, the relentless bee mortality still has them mystified, according to a segment that aired on PBS' NewsHour yesterday.
"We really don't seem to have accomplished a whole lot, because we're still losing, on an average, approximately 30 percent or more of our colonies each year. And that's higher than it used to be," UC Cooperative Extension bee expert Eric Mussen told reporter Spencer Michels. "Only 25 percent of the beekeepers seem to have this CCD problem over and over and over. The...
- Posted By: Jeannette E. Warnert
- Written by: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology will be featured today (Thursday, July 28) on the PBS NewsHour, which is broadcasting a special program on colony collapse disorder (CCD) and the nation’s honey bees.
Correspondent/producer Spencer Michels recently interviewed Mussen at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis and toured the half-acre Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven.
The same program will air at both 3 and 6 p.m. on the West Coast. The bee piece will air about “30 or 33 minutes into the show,” Michels said.
“This will feature a number of...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A swarm of Africanized honeybees attacked a 70-year-old man in Modesto last week in the first reported assault by so-called "killer bees" north of Tulare, the Modesto Bee reported. The man was stung more than 50 times, but survived the attack.
Laboratory tests determined the bees were "Africanized," or hybrids descended from swarms moving north from Brazil since scientists brought African bees to breed in the late 1950s.
A UC publication, Africanized Honey Bee Facts, says the insect's killer reputation has been exaggerated. The bees look and pollinate the same as common...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The insects and animals that bustle from blossom to blossom collecting food while inadvertently pollinating plants are responsible for helping produce some of the healthiest food on the planet. Any threat to pollinators, therefore, is a threat to human health, according to a study published this week in the online journal PLoS ONE.
The study was carried out by an international team that included scientists from UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco. It stemmed from a working group at UC Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, said a UCSB news...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Solitary, hard working leafcutter bees are being imported from Canada to help pollinate seed alfalfa, making the crop profitable in the San Joaquin Valley, according to an article published today in Western Farm Press.
“Economically, seed alfalfa cannot compete with other crops without the leafcutter bees,” the story quoted Bob Sheesley, an alfalfa breeder who is a former UC Cooperative Extenion farm advisor and county director. Working together with honeybees, leafcutters boost alfalfa seed yield 250 pounds to 300 pounds per acre, Sheesley said.
The story was written by Dennis Pollock, who is now doing freelance ag...