RFID Tracking: Where It Fits in an Entomologist’s Toolbox
If you've ever used an electronic pass in your car to pay a highway toll, then you know the basics of radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking. RFID tags are now available in sizes allowing for applications in entomological research. Here's how one scientist is using RFID in his research on honey bees.
Survey Shines Light on Beekeepers’ Efforts to Manage Varroa Mites
Nonchemical Varroa-management methods are more common among small-scale beekeepers, but chemical varroacides show wide use among all types.
Road Trip: How Hive Transportation Puts Stress on Honey Bees
Honey bees are in high demand for pollinating crops, and hives are often trucked thousands of miles a year to serve different crops in different regions and seasons. But researchers say honey bees show signs of stress from all that travel.
Yellowjackets: A Look at Opportunistic Raiders of Honey Bee Hives
Yellowjackets are nuisance predators of honey bees, preying on them and pillaging their honey. But bees fight back, and healthy hives are rarely at risk. Learn more about yellowjackets, their interactions with bees, and what sets yellowjackets apart from hornets and other fellow wasps.
An Inside Look at How the Varroa Mite’s True Diet Was Discovered
Some researchers willing to question conventional wisdom, some crafty experimentation, and some high-tech microscopic imagery all add up to a discovery about the Varroa destructor mite that upends years of understanding about how it parasitizes honey bees.
Pollen Sleuths: Tracking Pesticides in Honey Bee Pollen to Their Source Plant
When pesticides show up in the pollen that honey bees collect, can the source plant be pinpointed? A new study is the first to successfully combine 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.
Colony Size Drives Honey Bees’ Overwinter Survival
Research in Pennsylvania shows that overall colony weight and the number of worker bees to be the leading factors in determining overwintering survival of honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies. For colonies in which the combined weight of adult bees, brood, and food stores exceeded 30 kilograms, overwinter survival rates were about 94 percent.
Why Pesticides Pose Different Kinds of Risk to Non-Honey Bees
A new collection of reports in Environmental Entomology highlights the need for pesticide risk assessments that account for the differing qualities and behaviors between honey bees and bumble bees, solitary bees, and stingless bees.
No Buzz, No Problem: Study Shows How Honey Bees Pollinate Blueberries
Honey bees are incapable of buzz pollination, but they can (and do) perform pollination duties in highbush blueberry. A new study shows that, while honey bees rarely collect blueberry pollen in the pollen baskets on their hind legs, they frequently contact it with other body parts and transfer it to other flowers.
Propolis Power-Up: How Beekeepers Can Encourage Resin Deposits for Better Hive Health
When honey bees produce more propolis, a waxy resin they use for sealing up their hives, overall health benefits to the colony ensue. A new study tests a few simple methods beekeepers can use to encourage more propolis production in their hives.
Bees Stopped Buzzing During the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse
A study conducted during the 2017 total solar eclipse in North America found that bees remained active during partial-eclipse phases, but they essentially ceased flying during totality.
For Good of the Colony, Sick Honey Bee Brood Sounds the Alarm
Honey bees detect and remove brood afflicted with parasites or pathogens. A new study shows that part of this "hygienic behavior" relies on chemical signals emitted by unhealthy brood, and brood coming from colonies bred to be more hygienic are more effective in signaling for their own removal.
Why Smoking Soothes the Stressed-Out Bee Hive
A new study that explores the effect of smoke on honey bee (Apis mellifera) behavior finds that it reduces the instance of bees releasing a venom droplet in their signaling of danger to other bees, which researchers speculate may thereby reduce the amount of alarm pheromone released.
Funny Honey at the Zoo Reveals Bees’ Foraging on Sugar Baits
In the course of a study on mosquito movement, researchers discovered that local colonies of honey bees had foraged on a nontoxic sugar bait meant for the mosquitoes. The bait was dyed red to track mosquitoes that fed on it, but the dye also showed up in much of the bees' honey.
More Research Needed to Better Balance Honey Bees and Native Bees
A review of existing research on floral resource competition between managed honey bees and wild bees shows gaps in our knowledge about such interactions and calls for further research to better inform decisions on honey bee management and pollinator protection.
Beyond the Honey Bee: How Pesticides Affect Solitary, Cavity-Nesting Bees
Solitary bees face different—and less well-understood—challenges from pesticide exposure than their colony-dwelling honey bee cousins. A pair of entomologists encourage colleagues to dedicate more research to these important pollinators.