- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The Deep Look crew filmed the footage of the varroa mites with the assistance of Niño and Joseph Tauzer, manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, Bee Biology Road. Other segments of the production were filmed elsewhere.
The video was publicly released Oct. 24.
"They really did a great job, just like with the one on bee bread also done in my lab a few years back (2019)," said Niño, who also is the founder and director of the California Master Beekeeper Program. (See "Honey Bees Make Honey...and Bread?")
Varroa mites (Varroa destructor), natives of Asia, are external parasitic mites that feed on and weaken honey bees. They can spread such viruses as the deformed wing virus.
Beekeepers typically describe varroa mites as "Public Enemy No. 1" or as "A Beekeeper's Worst Enemy." In the Deep Look video, host Laura Klivans comments: "Every year, up to half the managed honeybee hives in the United States die from hazards like pesticide exposure, lack of flowers to forage on year-round, and varroa mites...varroa mites are great at sneaking into hives, hiding, and reproducing like mad."
Varroa mites reproduce only in a bee colony. The mites are small--measuring about 1–1.8 mm long and 1.5–2 mm wide--but they are huge to a bee. "It's as if you were carrying around a tick the size of a dinner plate," Klivans says.
Scientists first detected varroa mites in the United States in the 1980s. "They evolved on eastern honeybees, in Asia," Klivans notes. "That's why the western honeybees in the Americas and Europe aren't yet good at defending against them."
Research is underway to breed bees that will better target the mites. "The U.S. Department of Agriculture and private companies are breeding bees that can sniff out varroa mites," according to Deep Look. "When the bees find some, they uncap the cells and interrupt reproduction."
The video also focuses on "the sugar shake," a procedure used to monitor and estimate the number of varroa mites in a bee colony. It involves adding a half of a cup of bees (about 300) from the brood comb to a jar with a mesh lid, dropping in two tablespoons of confectioners' sugar, shaking the jar for 30 seconds to dislodge the mites, and emptying the contents on a tray. The beekeepers then count the number of varroa mites, estimate the severity of infestation, and decide what needs to be done.
Deep Look humorously describes the sugar-coated mites as "frosted varroa mites."
"The U.S. Department of Agriculture and private companies are breeding bees that can sniff out varroa mites," Klivans tells viewers. "When the bees find some, they uncap the cells and interrupt reproduction." Through queen bee insemination, scientists at Purdue and Central State universities are breeding honeybees known as “mite-biters." (See news story)
In addition to Niño and Tauzer, researchers consulted included Adam Finkelstein, VP Queen Bees; Krispn Given, Purdue Universities; Cameron Jack, University of Florida; Jeff Harris, Mississippi State University; Hongmei Li-Byarlay, Central State University; Samuel Ramsey, University of Colorado, Boulder; and Frank Rinkevich, USDA.
Credits include Deep Look producer/writer Gabriela Quirós; cinematographer Josh Cassidy; narrator/writer Laura Klivans; original music Seth Samuel; and editors/motion graphics Gabriela Quirós and Kia Simon.
In 2007, Deep Look filmed bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey (now of Washington State University) inseminating bee queens in the Laidlaw lab. At the time, Cobey managed the Laidlaw facility. Also in the video, the late Eric Mussen (1944-2022), Extension apiculturist and member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty, discusses colony collapse disorder.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Ah, Saturday, April 17. It's the 107th Annual UC Davis Picnic Day! What's a picnic without bugs?
This year's event, all virtual, is themed "Discovering Silver Linings," and you can do just that by watching the pre-recorded videos and by participating in the Zoom sessions. Check out the Picnic Day schedule of events which include entomological exhibits and talks from the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, Bohart Museum of Entomology and the UC Davis Graduate Student Association.
New additions to the line-up (featured on the Bohart Museum of Entomology website), involve what you could call "The good, the bad and the bugly." Blue orchard bees, tsetse flies and mosquitoes are spotlighted in UC Davis research-based videos created by KQED's Deep Look series and presented by PBS Digital Studios. Each runs about four minutes.
Here are the KQED productions:
- Watch this Bee Build Her Bee-Jeweled Nest, featuring blue orchard bees, the project of UC Davis doctoral student Clara Stuligross.
- A Tsetse Fly Births One Enormous Milk-Fed Baby, showcasing the work of medical entomologist Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
- This Dangerous Mosquito Lays Her Armored Eggs--in Your House, involving the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that the Attardo lab studies.
Clara Stuligross, Doctoral Student
They exposed the bees to the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid, widely used in agriculture, and found that the combined threats—imidacloprid exposure and the loss of flowering plants—reduced the bee's reproduction by 57 percent, resulting in fewer female offspring.
Other scientists have conducted similar research on honey bees, but this is the first comparable research on wild bees in field or semi-field conditions. The blue orchard bee, nicknamed BOB, is a dark metallic mason bee, smaller than a honey bee. It is prized for pollinating almond, apple, plum, pear, and peach trees. California almond growers often set up bee boxes or "bee condos" for blue orchard bees to aid in honey bee pollination. In the wild, the bees nest in reeds or natural holes.
Update? "We are currently working on a follow-up study to investigate potential carryover effects of past insecticide exposure on the same bee population, as well as how repeated pesticide exposure over multiple years impacts bee population growth," Stuligross said today.
Geoffrey Attardo, Medical Entomologist-Geneticist
What many people do not know: "Female tsetse flies carry their young in an adapted uterus for the entirety of their immature development and provide their complete nutritional requirements via the synthesis and secretion of a milk like substance," Attardo says.
Attardo led landmark research published Sept. 2, 2019 in the journal Genome Biology that provides new insight into the genomics of the tsetse fly. The researchers compared and analyzed the genomes of six species of tsetse flies. Their research could lead to better insights into disease prevention and control.
The Deep Look episode on mosquitoes, "This Dangerous Mosquito Lays Her Armored Eggs-- in Your House," deals with the ability of Aedes aegypti eggs to survive out of water. Wrote the producers: "The Aedes aegypti mosquito, which can transmit dengue fever and Zika, makes a meal of us around our homes. And her eggs are hardy. They can dry out, but remain alive for months, waiting for a little water so they can hatch into squiggly larvae."