Clean Bees Keep Mites Away

It turns out that the good house-keeping skills may best way for honey bees to protect themselves against dangerous varroa mites.

Varroa mites suck bees dry of blood and destroy their hives and are currently a serious threat to the bee industry. They're tiny, but they've destroyed up to 70 percent of the hives in some parts of the country, threatening to wipe out the insects that help pollinate $15 billion worth of nuts, fruits, and vegetables grown each year.

While searching for a long-lasting, non chemical solution to the mite problem, bee researchers at the USDA's Agricultural Research Service discovered a special group of bees that knock down a colony's mite population using their natural instincts.

Researchers initially thought that these special bees - called "SMR" bees because they appeared to "suppress mite reproduction" - were releasing chemicals that confused ready-to-reproduce female mites.

But after taking a closer look, they realized that these bees were just very good housekeepers. They sniff out young, developing mites in snug pockets of honeycomb. Once they've found the mites, the bees start their cleaning process, chewing away the waxy cap of the pocket and exposing the developing parasites to a harsh environment. This process, over time, significantly reduces the overall number of mites in the colony.

This research was presented in the October issue of Agricultural Research magazine.

--Bjorn Carey

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Credit: Scott Bauer