Healthier honeybee hives mean fewer viruses on nearby flowers and wild bees
Deutsch KR, Quezada TA, Cody LV, Ng WH, Muñiz PA
Pollinators
The flowers in your garden act as shared dining tables where a virus from a neighbor's hives can pass to native bees, hoverflies, and other visitors, and mite control in those hives cuts that risk.
Varroa mites spread a nasty virus that cripples honeybee wings, and the virus also lands on flowers and infects wild pollinators. Researchers checked 27 apiaries and nearly 1000 pollinators and found that hives with mites kept in check carried far less virus. Wild bees and flowers around those hives were much less likely to test positive too.
Key Findings
Keeping varroa below the recommended treatment threshold reduced deformed wing virus loads in honeybees by over 100-fold.
Virus prevalence on flowers near apiaries dropped by over 35% when varroa was controlled.
Virus prevalence in wild pollinators around apiaries fell by 39%-85% when varroa was controlled, based on about 1000 pollinators and 350 flowers across 27 apiaries.
chevron_right Technical Summary
When beekeepers keep varroa mites under control, honeybees carry far less deformed wing virus, and the virus turns up much less on flowers and in wild pollinators nearby. Good hive management protects native bees and other flower visitors too.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Controlling Varroa destructor infestations in managed honeybee colonies limits virus spillover into wild pollinator communities.
Given recent pathogen-mediated pollinator declines, there is concern regarding virus spillover from managed honeybees to wild pollinators. While the parasitic mite Varroa destructor specializes on ...
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