News about bees and beekeeping from around the world
Number of news: 760 and counting
The Soil Association has urged the government to ban pesticides linked to honeybee deaths around the world.
A study by scientists from the Nairobi-headquartered international research centre icipe, in collaboration with the French Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) has established that bees have the potential to mediate the escape of transgenes (genetically engineered material) from crops to their wild relatives over several kilometres.
Honeybees are clever little creatures. They can form abstract concepts, such as symmetry versus asymmetry, and they use symbolic language - the celebrated waggle dance - to direct their hivemates to flower patches. New reports suggest that they can also communicate across species, and can count - up to a point.
The Queensland Government hasn’t given up hope of getting rid of Asian honeybees in Far North Queensland.
All movement controls designed to prevent the spread of varroa were revoked by MAF Biosecurity New Zealand (MAFBNZ) this week after incursion of the pest throughout the island became inevitable.
Both chief entomologist with the Air Force spray flight Maj. Mark Breidenbaugh and Iberia Parish Mosquito Control Director Herff Jones say there is a fine line trying to target disease-carrying insects and avoid beneficial ones. The difficulty is compounded by some of the specific challenges coastal parishes face after flooding by Hurricane Ike.
Movement controls associated with varroa bee mite are being revoked tomorrow.
An Israeli-US company Beeologics is taking rapid measures to bring to market a proprietary anti-viral agent that promises to alleviate the effects of the virus strongly associated with Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), with full-scale FDA trials commencing next month.
The National Beekeepers’ Association wants the South Island’s varroa control line to be moved further south, now that a widespread infestation has been confirmed outside the current control area.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have modified a honeybee venom toxin so that it can be used as a tool to study the inner workings of ion channels that control heart rate and the recycling of salt in kidneys. In general, ion channels selectively allow the passage of small ions such as sodium, potassium, or calcium into and out of the cell.