By Amanda M. Ellis
University of Georgia
Volume XXXI |
Over the past 20 years, some exotic honeybee pests have been introduced into the U.S.
The most devastating of these is the varroa mite. To a bee, this mite is like having a basketball-sized tick attached to your side. You can imagine the damage it causes as it sucks the honeybee's blood.
Varroa mites transmit viruses to the bee, too, causing even greater sickness. These mites have all but wiped out wild U.S. colonies of honeybees. As a result, the honeybees in North America are virtually all domesticated, relying on beekeepers to manage the devastating mites.
Garden pollinators
And just when overall bee health is at its lowest, we need honeybees more than ever. Honeybees are important pollinators for gardeners at all levels.Pollination is the movement of pollen from the male part of a flower to the female part. It's vital to plant reproduction. Most plants need pollination to produce fruit. Some even require cross-pollination to set more and larger fruit.
Other types of native bee pollinators are out there. But habitat destruction and urban development have reduced their populations, too, in many areas.
Honeybees fill the pollination void left by native species. They're excellent pollinators because of their generalist foraging habits and large colony sizes, with 30,000 to 60,000 bees per hive.
Honeybees visit plants to collect both pollen and nectar to use as food. They use pollen as a protein source for rearing baby bees. And nectar, which they process and store in the hive as honey, is their primary energy source.
Bee dancing
To "tell" one another where pollen and nectar-rich plants are, honeybees use a special dance language known as the waggle dance. During spring and summer, forager bees work from sunup to sundown, working themselves to death in only six weeks.Pests such as varroa mites bring bees' death even faster, making this valuable pollinator scarce in many areas.
The honeybee laboratory at the University of Georgia is at the forefront of honeybee research. The lab's primary research emphases focus on controlling bee pests and studying pollination ecology.
Scientists are making strides in both areas. And just in time. Honeybee health is at an all-time low.
Honeybees are a vital component not just of a successful garden but of agriculture, too. So, support and promote honeybees and beekeeping in your area. After all, honeybees give you one-third of all the food you eat.
(Amanda Ellis is a graduate student in entomology with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)
