"LANDSCAPE AFFECTS ON BEE HEALTH -PESTICIDES, NUTRITION, PARASITES AND DISEASES"ZACHARY LAMAS

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

NUTRITION

DIVERSITY OF PLANT SPECIES:

¡Each plant does not offer complete nutritional needs

¡Diversity of blooms to feed all pollinators

¡For both nectar, pollen and extra floral sources.

¡To provide nesting and housing

BLOOMS ACROSS TIME

FLOWER DIVERSITY

EQUALS

POLLEN DIVERSITY

WE NEED TO STOP GENERALIZING OUR LANDSCAPES

Changes to Nutrition on a landscape level

• What is replaced• What we plant• Intensity of management

PESTICIDES

HERBICIDESINSECTICIDESFUNGICIDES

Why do we use them?

HERBICIDES• Dramatically reduce weed competition to crop plants and

reduce labor costs for farmers• Reduce the diversity of plant species in agricultural and urban

areas

INSECTICIDES• Allow for monocultures of market crops.• Produce “perfect” blemish free fruits and vegetables for

market. • In some areas of the world insecticides are a targeted

method for reducing malaria.

FUNGICIDES• Largely used to prevent pre-harvest spoilage• For some produce (peaches, apricots) topically coated

before shipment• Injected into vinyl siding, swimming pools, paints, and other

household manufactured goods.

CONFUSION ABOUT PESTICIDES?

¡I believe we have a cultural problem with how we approach pesticides. Our media and social media use emotionally driven titles to drive attention-

¡Peer reviewed publications reinforce our logical understanding of their effects.

-National Geographic

• Direct Pollen Feeders• Prompt brood cell feeders• Solitary – Queens overwinter alone

and restart colonies in the spring• Temporal resiliency

• Protein is secreted through hypopharyngeal glands• Progressive feeders• Macro or “super” organism• Year-round resiliency

• Both generalists• Both used for pollination• 2nd, and 1st most studied bees

respectfully

DISEASE

• BROOD DISEASES• EUROPEAN FOUL BROOD• AMERICAN FOUL BROOD• CHALK BROOD

• VIRUSES• VECTORED BY VARROA• VERTICALLY AND

HORIZONTALLY TRANSMITTED

A. American Foul Brood

B. European Foul Brood

C. Parasitic Mite Syndrome

D. ?????

A. B.

C. D.

Same colony- 6 weeks difference.

WHY CAN WE NOT PREDICT COLONY LOSS?

• The varroa destructor is cosmopolitan except for Australia.

• They feed and reproduce inside developing brood cells, and feed on adult bees.

• Varroa vector viruses directly to developing brood and adult bees.

• They shorten the life of honey bees, reduce their brood nest behavior and have been linked to colony loss.

Despite being known as a threat to honey bees for 50 years, there is still a lot we don’t know about varroa destructor.

Samuel Ramsey

In Search of a Good Meal: Varroa destructor regularly switches between adult bee hosts to feed

Zachary S. Lamas, Mathew Heerman, Eugene Ryabov, Daniel Sonenshine, Serhat Solmaz, Kirsten S. Traynor, Dennis vanEngelsdorp

Multiple Feeding – What is it? Why does it matter?

Even though we quote varroa as a vector of viruses to honey bees, we don’t know the vectoring capacity of this parasite.

Using fluorescent micro-spheres to track varroa feeding

Inject pupae with fluorescent beads Place pupae with mites in 00 gel cap for 48 hours

Record location of varroa each day

Finding the fluorescent spheres

Record where the mite is feeding

Dissect the bee, and collect tissue from that region; avoid the digestive tract

Locate beads via fluorescent microscopy

FITC (GFP) Microspheres with DAPI (Blue) Counter Stain

"Varroa females also show a strong preference for the lateral intertergites III on the left side of the abdomen on adult bees (Delftnado- Baker et al. 1992)

Right and Left Handed?

I WANT TO LEAVE EVERYONE WITH TWO THOUGHTS.

Can we see all our lights?

WHICH IS OUR BRIGHTEST LIGHT?