all over their plants because they don’ t want bug munching on their leaves. But pesticides can get into honey bees and
kill them too, which is partially what stops their crops from being pollinated. Not only is it the pesticides, but the varroa mite plays a huge role in this investment. The varroa mite is like a tick of the honey bee, except deadlier. With every bloodsucking they take, they transmit intestinal eating viruses that destroy the bees from the inside out.“ They can also transmit acute paralysis viruses and can cause wing deformity, missing legs and internal organs when feeding on young brood”, says Tina Lee, a college student studying in entomology,“ There is a lot of evidence that varroa mites are the cause of CCD. For example, the honey bee in Australia is immune to the diseases of honey bees in America. And in Australia, varroa mites aren’ t native there”. Not only is it the varroa mite. The so called,“ Zombie Fly” is its partner in crime. The zombie fly is a tiny mosquito like bug that pierces its stinger on the honey bee’ s abdomen and lays its eggs inside the bee, while permanently attaching itself to the bee. Within a week, the eggs hatch and the larvae feed on the internal organs of the honey bee. During that week, the honey bee increases activity at night, which is highly unlikely in honey bees. Finally at night, the honey bee flies erratically around any source of light for a studied 5 minutes before it collapses to the ground and the zombie fly larvae emerge from the honey bee’ s neck. These four main causes are already too many to exactly pinpoint.
Well, how can I help? There are many ways where you help save the bees, you can even start keeping your own bee hive to help keep the bee population. And if your’ e too scared of being stung or just think bees are terrifying, you can still help by planting a bee garden, a garden with fruit trees or vegetable plants that can be pollinated by bees like pears, apples, almonds, peaches, strawberries, cherries, etc. By doing this you help the bees by giving them a source of food, and constant honey production. Also while your growing your soon-to-be juicy fruits and vegetables, don’ t put pesticides on your plants. You might think your’ e helping your plant not get eaten by little pests, but your’ e also avoiding your plant being pollinated, which means- no crops. You can also avoid using wasp killer around your house because even
Varroa mites feeding on a honey bee
Symptoms of CCD
1. Many sightings of Varroa mite
2. No dead honey bees around the hive.
3. Queen still in hive
4. Hive still filled with honey 5. Capped larvae 6. No scavenger bees for honey