Unique Stakeholder Group Works to Reduce Honey Bee Exposure

Corn Dust Research Consortium (CDRC) Calls for Widespread Cooperative Measures To Support Honey Bees, Beekeepers, and Farmers   San Francisco, California – The non-profit Pollinator Partnership (P2) has released the 2013 Preliminary Report and Provisional Recommendations of the Corn Dust Research Consortium (CDRC), a multi-stakeholder initiative formed to fund research with the goal of reducing honey bee exposure to fugitive dust emitted …

Single Gene Separates Queen from Workers

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Scientists have identified how a single gene in honey bees separates the queens from the workers. A team of scientists from Michigan State University and Wayne State University unraveled the gene's inner workings and published the results in the current issue of Biology Letters. The gene, which is responsible for leg and wing development, plays a crucial …

Common Crop Pesticides Kill Honey Bee Larvae in the Hive

Four pesticides commonly used on crops to kill insects and fungi also kill honey bee larvae within their hives, according to Penn State and University of Florida researchers. The team also found that N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) -- an inert, or inactive, chemical commonly used as a pesticide additive -- is highly toxic to honeybee larvae. "We found that four of the pesticides …

Pathogenic Plant Virus Jumps to Honey Bees

A viral pathogen that typically infects plants has been found in honey bees and could help explain their decline. Researchers working in the U.S. and Beijing, China report their findings in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. The routine screening of bees for frequent and rare viruses "resulted in the serendipitous detection of Tobacco Ringspot Virus, …

Exposure to Pesticides Results in Smaller Worker Bees

Exposure to a widely used pesticide causes worker bumblebees to grow less and then hatch out at a smaller size, according to a new study by Royal Holloway University of London. The research, published today in the Journal of Applied Ecology, reveals that prolonged exposure to a pyrethroid pesticide, which is used on flowering crops to prevent insect damage, reduces the …

Penn Museum Team Finds Evidence for 3,000+-year-old ‘Nordic Grog’ Tradition — Honey Was A Major Ingredient

Discovery highlights innovative and complex fermented beverages of northernmost Europe in the Bronze and Iron Ages From northwest Denmark, circa 1500-1300 BC, to the Swedish island of Gotland as late as the first century AD, Nordic peoples were imbibing an alcoholic "grog" or extreme hybrid beverage rich in local ingredients, including honey, bog cranberry, lingonberry, bog myrtle, yarrow, juniper, birch tree …

EPA Awards Funding

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced agricultural grants for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices to reduce the use of potentially harmful pesticides and lower risk to bees all while controlling pests and saving money. “These collaborative projects can provide innovative solutions to reduce pesticide risks to pollinators and crops,” said James Jones, assistant administrator for the …

Ancient Pheromones Keep Queens in Charge

Researchers have identified a particular class of structurally similar, queen-specific hydrocarbons that suppress the reproduction of ant, wasp and bumblebee workers alike -- and they suggest that these pheromones have been around, signaling fertility in social insects, for nearly 150 million years. Previous studies have shown that when it comes to such social insects, queens maintain their monopoly on reproduction …