Causes of mass death of bees. The mass death of bees has reached Russia. Factors that influence the collapse of bee colonies

AT Lately beekeepers are increasingly faced with the problem of mass death or rally of bees in the fall. This problem causes great damage to beekeeping. Therefore, it needs to be addressed.

Why do bees leave the hive in autumn?

The beekeepers call the autumn gathering of bees a situation when an absolutely healthy and strong family suddenly, for no apparent reason, leaves a hive normally prepared for wintering and flies away with the queen, leaving behind honey and printed brood. There are two types of bees gathering:

The family leaves the hive in a dense mass along with the queen. Sometimes the queen is left with a small number of workers. Honey and printed brood are usually in place. This phenomenon can be confused with swarming.
Bees from one hive fly to another, leaving everything behind. At the same time, even without paying attention to security.

The features of this phenomenon include:

It happens only in autumn.
Sometimes single families disappear, usually the strongest. But sometimes the whole apiary can fly off.
Other individuals do not steal honey left by bees. But if the honeycomb is moved to another place, everything will be taken away in an instant.
In an abandoned hive, not a single family takes root anymore.
Before they leave, the family suddenly becomes strong.
On one apiary, all families can fly off, but on the one that is nearby, everything is fine.

A definite answer as to why this is happening has not yet been found. It has been proven that the possibility of a family gathering in autumn with an old and worn-out uterus is higher than with a young and strong one. However, this, of course, is not the only factor that provokes the disappearance of bees. Many believe that this phenomenon is caused not by one reason, but by a number of factors. These include the replacement of honey with sugar in the fall, and various viruses and infections, and insufficient treatment against ticks, and much more.

Why is there a mass death of bees

Experienced beekeepers identify several reasons that can lead to the death of bees. These include:

Rainy summer, few honey plants. Such poor conditions for collecting honey throughout the summer, especially closer to autumn, as a rule, always contribute to the weakening of families. If there is little nectar to the bees, then, starting around July, the family will switch to the wrong food for it at this time of the year - honey. And this is very bad. Indeed, at the same time, the bees will begin to eat worse in order to more economically spend the food prepared for the winter. Individuals of the nurse will produce less milk, which means that there will be less food for the larvae. Accordingly, young individuals will be underfed, and they will not live long. As a result, in such a family there simply will not be long-lived bees. By autumn, she will either leave the hive or die.
Overspread of the Varroa mite towards the end of summer. This pest is a real scourge for beekeepers. It not only weakens the immunity of the worker bee, but is also a carrier of many diseases. This pest is “able to” weaken some bee colonies so much that they simply cease to exist. To avoid this, it is necessary immediately, after the last extraction of honey, to carry out a high-quality treatment from this tick. In this case, working individuals will be able to recover before wintering and will not die. Bipin has recently been considered a particularly effective drug. It acts on ticks within three hours after application. Properly selected concentration of bipin is not toxic to bees.
The presence of viral and infectious diseases. Usually beekeepers are faced with wing deformity virus and melanosis. The notorious tick carries these diseases. You can determine the presence of a virus and infections by the sea. Melanosis is a common infectious disease that attacks the queen bee, it contributes to her death or the cessation of egg laying. That is why the treatment with Bipin against varroatosis is so important.
The presence of pesticides on honey plants. Unfortunately, the beekeeper will not be able to influence this factor. The treatment of fields with pesticides lies entirely on the conscience of our agricultural enterprises. This also includes the consumption of pollen by bees from genetically modified plants. Of course, if the field does not belong to the beekeeper, no one is obliged to ask him what to grow on it.
Replacing honey with sugar in the fall. In fact, the last honey must be left to the bees, but in some regions this is not possible for a number of reasons. But beekeepers should be aware that such actions can undermine the immunity of a working family.
The use of antibiotics to treat certain diseases. These drugs can reduce the immunity of all living organisms. In addition, you should also be aware that in many countries the use of honey with traces of antibiotics is prohibited. Fortunately, there are many other remedies for the treatment of existing diseases of bees.
Availability of towers cellular communication located next to the apiary. It will also be difficult for a beekeeper to influence this factor. Only decision is to take her away from such a place, but this is not always possible.
Inbreeding. Closely related mating can lead to weakened workers. To prevent this from happening, you need to change breeding insects more often.

Separately, it should be said about feeding insects in large doses with sugar. Some are very negative about this moment, calling it one of possible causes death of bees. However, not everything is so clear-cut here. In principle, in nature there are some honey plants, for example, a sunflower, that produce nectar, the composition of which differs little from that of ordinary sugar. That is, it consists of only carbohydrates, so its processing is identical to the processing of sweet syrup, which some beekeepers like to feed their bees. Moreover, when a family is fed with sugar, it wears out less, because it does not need to extract nectar. As a result, we can conclude that such top dressing by itself cannot cause the flight or death of bees. However, the timing of feeding is important. If large volumes of syrup are processed by bees preparing for wintering, this can lead to their depletion. After all, in doing so, they will spend their reserve funds stored up for the winter.

If you do not make mistakes when breeding bees and follow all the recommendations, then problems such as gathering in the fall and the mass death of bees can be completely avoided.

You can see about the problems of gathering and death of bees on this video.

How to properly prevent diseases in the spring, see this video.

What remains in the hive after the rally, see the bees in this video.

The non-profit organization Genetic Literacy Project at George Mason Public University (Virginia, USA), has published a review of studies on the causes of mass death of bees in individual countries and regions and in the world as a whole.

The review contains the following interesting facts and conclusions:

Thesis of world media and environmental and other activists public organizations that the number of bee colonies in the world is steadily declining is refuted by the results of scientific research. The reduction in the number of bee colonies takes place only in individual countries, while in the world there is a reverse trend. Beekeepers are recovering the loss of bee colonies and so far they are coping with this problem quite successfully.
At the same time, in many countries there is an increase in the death of bees not only during the wintering period, but also during the beekeeping season. This, for example, is evidenced by official data on the death of bees in the United States (yellow indicates losses during wintering, red - during the year):

The main conclusion of the review authors is that restrictions on the use of neonicotinoids and other pesticides in agriculture will not stop the mass death of bees in the "beekeeping powers", and that in order to successfully combat this phenomenon, a wide range of other problems should be taken into account.

The death of bees

For an amateur beekeeper, this is a big nuisance, but if there is a supply of families, at least a dozen, then this loss can be replenished over time. For a beginner beekeeper who has three or four hives in his apiary, the loss of one or two colonies is not just a problem. If this still happens in the first years of beekeeping, then only perseverance can save the hobby for beekeeping from a premature end. Very often, people give up bees just after such losses, at least, the desire to quit everything arises in many.

The death of bee colonies occurs most often in winter, and there are several reasons for this, here are just a few of them:

nosematosis (this disease), poisoning, lack of food supplies,

mice, high or low temperature, dampness, stuffiness.

The easiest way is to establish the death of bees from starvation, in other cases it is difficult, and sometimes almost impossible.

Bees very often go hungry, not because of their own laziness, but because the beekeeper leaves them too little food. Every novice beekeeper should remember this and under no circumstances touch the honey from the nest. Everything below the shops does not concern you. On the contrary, if necessary, you yourself need to feed weak families for the winter in time.

Even if the cat weeps commercial honey, even if there is a great temptation to change honey from the nest for sugar top dressing. No and no again! Remember, you are not a robber, you are the owner of the hives; and the diligent beekeeper must first of all take care not of his belly, but of those who bring him honey, of the bees. And to observe the main principle - it is necessary to leave so much honey to the bees that it would be enough in excess until the spring honey plants bloom.

Sometimes families die, having both brood and good supplies of honey, however, crystallized, and, unfortunately, it can be used only if there is water. And there is a lot of honey, and its reserves turn into a continuous solid mass in the nest - “stone” honey (this is honey collected from cruciferous plants, for example, from colza, or stored in old, almost black combs). There's nothing you can do about it, you have to put up with the loss, although it will take some time, and you will learn to understand what kind of honey is harvested in the bee's nest, and replace it in a timely manner with non-candied.

As for the poisoning of bees, it occurs in the second half of wintering, in February or March, when, when raising brood, the bees consume a lot of pollen, which is collected from plants treated with insecticides. Recently, this has ceased to be relevant due to the fact that many regions of Russia have not been pollinated with pesticides for decades (thank God). The fields are overgrown with grass and weeds, which inevitably causes bitterness in the city dweller, and undisguised joy in the beekeeper. One thinks about the neglect of the earth, the other makes plans for a different harvest, because the more any wild grass, the more the bees have the opportunity to collect nectar and store honey.

In the middle lane, due to the harsh climate, strong families need to leave a lot of honey for the winter, 25–30 kg. If the bees overwinter in a special room where the temperature can be maintained within the range of 0 to 3 degrees, you can limit yourself to 18–20 kg of food.

Nosema disease is the most dangerous for bees. Difficult to detect in autumn, it can easily flare up in winter. Bees weaken, diarrhea appears, queens die.

So you don’t yawn in the fall, do therapeutic prophylaxis, all the more, it’s easier than a steamed turnip - put a plate with medicine in the center of the nest or spray frames with it.

From mice, a better remedy than spruce branches, with which they cover the floor of the winter hut and tie the hives, in combination with pesticides from rodents, and the hives themselves, without gaps, firmly made, with latches for gate barriers, have not been invented.

A beginner beekeeper needs to remember that a colony that has weakened for one reason or another does not have enough worker bees and brood, cannot properly use bribes, so it is cheaper for a beekeeper to take care of the bees ahead of time than to watch a good harvest of honey float past your hives.

Poor wintering of bees - main reason futility of bees. Academician N. M. Kulagin thought so, and he was, of course, right.

author Rytov Mikhail V.

Helpful Hints

author Kashkarov Andrey

From the book Beekeeping for Beginners author Tikhomirov Vadim Vitalievich

3.11. Winter huts for bees A bee family cannot be considered as a sum of bees, a chaotic combination of different individuals. The joint life of the community of bees is caused by necessity, the separate existence of bees is impossible: no queen, no drone, no worker bees, not even groups

From the book Fundamentals of Beekeeping [Most necessary advice for those who want to start their own apiary] author Medvedev N. I.

3.11.1. Wintering of bees In the Verkhovazhsky region, as in other places with a large snow cover and stable frosts, wintering of bees directly under the snow is allowed - this is due to its low thermal conductivity. Snow not only "holds" heat, but also protects the bees from sharp

From the author's book

Exhibition of bees Expose bees after the snow melts from the site intended for the apiary, the river opens from the ice, and the temperature on a calm day will be at least 12 degrees Celsius in the shade. It is best to start this troublesome work from nine in the morning to

From the author's book

Swarming bees This is a natural way of reproduction, but, of course, not a single bee, but entire bee colonies. For a novice beekeeper, as a rule, this is a baptism of fire. He is nervous, waiting for him, like a rookie for his first battle in his life. The apiary becomes an object

From the author's book

Feeding the bees If it were not for the man, the stocks of honey in the hive would be more than enough until a new honey collection. The appetites of homo sapiens are so great that sometimes the bee family does not have time to bring so much honey so that it is enough for the beekeeper and for the winter. If after the main

From the author's book

Temperature of bees The body of a bee, unlike the human body, does not have a constant temperature. Like other insects, a bee, if moving, is 10-15 degrees warmer than the surrounding air. At rest, it slowly cools down, and at temperatures below 8 degrees, it simply

From the author's book

Purchasing bees To organize your own apiary, bees can be purchased at a specialized store, from professional beekeepers and bee nurseries. If you have your own hives and the necessary equipment, you can buy a bee family or its layers, a swarm of bees,

From the author's book

Constructions of bees Nest of honey bees In their dwellings, bees build nests, without which the life of a bee colony is impossible. It is the nest of the bee family that provides favorable conditions for food storage, maintaining the required temperature and humidity, breeding

From the author's book

Reproduction of bees In honey bees, one should distinguish, firstly, the reproduction of bees (reproduction of individual individuals) - worker bees, queens and drones, and secondly, the reproduction of a bee colony as an integral biological and economic unit. At the same time, the increase

From the author's book

Florospecialization of bees Depending on the composition of melliferous vegetation and the conditions of honey collection, bees-gatherers bring only nectar or pollen to the hive, and sometimes both at the same time. Bees distinguish smells a thousand times stronger than humans. Bee looking for honey

From the author's book

Swarming of bees Swarming, which is expressed in the separation of a part of bees from the queen, is a historically established method of reproduction and settlement of bee colonies in natural conditions. In this way, bees multiplied during beekeeping and when they were kept in

From the author's book

Self-heating of bees Self-heating is one of the most important functions of bees. The bees themselves do not have a constant body temperature, but as soon as three dozen bees gather, they form a cluster and inside its temperature rises to 30 ° and above. That's what it is

From the author's book

Wintering of bees Strengthening bee colonies for winter For successful wintering of colonies, the physiological state of bees is of great importance. The bees participating in the honey collection until autumn, as a rule, do not survive until spring, as well as the bees who took part in the rearing of the brood or

In the last decade, in apiaries in many European countries and some countries North America such an unpleasant and incomprehensible phenomenon as the mass death of bees was noticed.

Beekeepers around the world sounded the alarm. It was even noticed that when the apiary leaves for a nomadic place, the insects are in no hurry to make a test flight and may even die of starvation due to the abundance of flowering honey plants around the apiary.

Entomologists have found out the cause of the mass death of bees. It was found that this is by no means the varroa mite - a mass disease that leads to the death of bees in many apiaries.

Reasons for the death of bees

The main reason for the death of bees is that farmlands are treated with a new generation of pesticides, neonicotinoids, to protect against insect pests. These are highly toxic poisons. In addition to vegetable crops, vegetable fences, forests, surrounding fields and meadows began to be treated with such substances. Moreover, the processing period just coincides with the flowering period of honey crops.
Another barbaric reason why bees die is commercial. In industrial apiaries, it is customary to pump out honey so completely that families are left without natural food supplies for the winter. It is replaced with sugar syrup. Because of this, the insects become so weak during wintering that they reproduce poorly, this also leads to the mass death of bees.
The third reason for the mass death of insects is the lack of a variety of plants for collecting nectar. This was proven two hundred years ago by a research beekeeper who founded beekeeping in industrial scale, P. I. Prokopovich. He believed that one apiary should have no more than fifty hives. Many modern beekeepers began to adhere to this idea and actively equip a good base of honey plants around their apiary.
Another reason why bees die is that their resistance to infections is reduced due to the use of antibiotics in the fight against the same diseases. You should not get involved in the use of these drugs, this leads to the formation of resistant strains of infections and the death of bees. Antibiotics tend to accumulate in bee products, this has also been proven by numerous studies.

Where it leads

Apimondia - the international federation of beekeepers - based on the results of its research, presented data stating that in Europe, about 30% of all honey workers die in just one year. The mass death of bees can lead to the loss of pollinators of many agricultural plants, and, consequently, to their complete disappearance.

The reasons are the same - uncontrolled use of pesticides

In the US, over the past ten years, 90% of the wild bee population and 80% of the domestic bee have died. Scientists say that the cause of death was a whole range of factors - from tick infestation to sudden climate change and intensive use of chemicals in the fields. The only solution to the problem is bumblebee farms, a new industry in the First World.

The mass death of bees is observed in almost all countries of the First World, but in the USA the consequences of this are the most painful, since the country has developed agriculture.

In the US, some apiaries have lost up to 80% of bee colonies since 2006, says Marianne Fraser of Pennsylvania State University. Up to 30% of bees do not survive the winter every year. The situation is already being referred to by many as a "biological catastrophe" and scientists have given it the definition of Colony Collapse (CBC), also sometimes referred to as "honey bee depopulation syndrome".

In the winter of 2008, a massive study by the USDA Agricultural Research Service and apiary inspectors showed that 36% of America's 2.4 million beehives were lost to CPS. The study showed an 11% increase in losses compared to 2007 and a 40% increase compared to 2006. By the beginning of 2013, the situation had worsened even more.

The exact cause of the mysterious death of bees has not yet been named. At some point, the bees abandon their hives and disappear, or there is a mass suicide of the bees.

CPS is explained by a combination of many factors. This is the influence of chemicals, pesticides and insecticides, damage to bees by mites, bacteria, fungi or viruses.

But nosems are responsible for the death of 5-10% of the bee population. What are the other factors? One of the main ones, according to the US Department of Agriculture, is climate change (but here people understand that the Obama Democratic administration attributes many cataclysms to global warming and climate change). First of all, these are sharp fluctuations in temperatures in winter and summer, which weaken the immune system of bees. In winter, up to 10-15% of the bee population dies because of this.

Another 10-20% of bees die due to the uncontrolled use of pesticides and herbicides.

As a result, the yield of crops pollinated by bees fell sharply in the United States - primarily fruit trees and shrubs (80 crops in total - from melons to cranberries). Apples and almonds are considered the most affected - in 2009-2012, due to the low level of pollination, farmers missed 30% of the harvest of these crops. In California, which accounts for 80% of all almond plantings, farmers, with the assistance of the Ministry of Agriculture, annually in the spring import beehives from other states from other states.

The importance of pollination by bees of crops that are able to set fruits without their help is evidenced by the example of strawberries: 53% of the development of its fruits is provided by self-pollination, 14% by wind pollination and 24% by insect pollination. It turns out that without bees, the shortage of this berry can be about 20%.

The total damage from the shortage of bees in the United States is 5 billion dollars annually, and it can reach 10-15 billion. Of these, up to 1 billion dollars can be imported bees, but most importantly - bumblebees.

Russia also has to buy bumblebees - our country also suffers from the death of bees, although not on such a scale as the United States. Alas, the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia does not detailed analysis this industry, but, according to various estimates, over the past five years, our bee population has decreased by 20-30%.

The reasons for the death of these insects in Russia are the same as in the United States, but we are “rescued” by ten times less use of chemicals in the fields (not because of a special love for the environment, but because of the impoverishment of the industry, and large areas of abandoned farmland - up to 40 million hectares only of arable land).

But where herbicides and insecticides are used, you can also see the mass death of bees. Here are just two recent examples:

First case. In six apiaries located in the vicinity of the village of Studenoe, in the Oryol region, 421 bee colonies died at the same time, including queen bees and flying bees.

Suspicion fell on a local agricultural enterprise, which has a field sown with rapeseed near the village. According to preliminary data, on the night of June 23-24, this field was treated with an insecticide preparation that is highly toxic to bees, the Rosselkhoznadzor reported. - Wherein interested people about the upcoming spraying were not notified.

Second case. Pest control has led to the mass death of bees in the Podgorensky district of the Voronezh region. This year, as usual, two beekeepers from the Sergeevsky rural settlement took 119 hives to the fields located next to Sergeevka. However, the treatment of lands with pesticides led to the death of bees.

After irrigating the fields with chemicals, our bees died, one and all, all 119 colonies. The heart bleeds, the work of five years has been destroyed, - said the beekeepers of the Sergeevsky rural settlement.

Attempts to domesticate bumblebees have been made since the early 19th century. However, the success of the industrial breeding of these insects became possible after elucidating the impact carbon dioxide on the ovogenesis of bumblebee queens, which made it possible to obtain offspring from them year-round and in a controlled manner. Today, up to 300 thousand families of bumblebees are grown annually in the European Union alone, and in total there are 550-600 thousand families in the world.

Of the 300 known species of bumblebees, the large earth bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) has become the primary object of study. Since 1994, families of this bumblebee have been imported from Israel, Belgium and Holland. The price of 1 bumblebee family is 125-150 dollars.

Bumblebees are brought in special houses that contain the queen, larvae, pupae and workers. The house of the bumblebee family is quite small, only 25 by 35 centimeters. And up to 70 insects live in it. The decoration inside is also not rich, a bunch of cotton wool, in which the family lives. All care consists only in feeding them with sugar syrup.

In Russia, there are only two farms that breed bumblebees. Potentially, Russia could become one of the largest producers of these insects, especially since a huge market for their sale will soon open - China, which is still the largest beekeeper in the world, but since 2011 there has also been a mass death of bees. In 2025, China could import up to 1 million bumblebee colonies a year, at a cost of up to 200 million euros annually.

Here is what the use of bumblebees in agriculture looks like:

“Siberian cucumbers met Belgian bumblebees in orderly rows. It happened for the first time, the farm decided to experiment. Insects were bought specially trained, they do not leave the premises, they live as a family in one box and do not require additional care. The bumblebees were brought in a special house, which is no longer changed on the farm. It has syrup inside for the bumblebees to feed on. During the day they fly and pollinate cucumbers, and fly back only at night.

Agronomists have already taken a sample of new fruits, the difference is obvious. Before that, only self-pollinated plants were grown in greenhouses, but they decided not to stand still and tried a new variety - "Athlete". It ripens in just a month, but in order for the ovaries to appear on the plants, bumblebees are needed. Agronomists hope that the experiment will be successful. About 5 years ago, they already resorted to the help of insects in greenhouses, then they bought bees to pollinate tomatoes. The yield jumped 3 times. But the trouble is, the bees turned out to be obstinate and flew into the open windows. This will not happen with bumblebees, besides, they are much more industrious than their relatives. Lyudmila Chupina, agronomist: “Bumblebees work much more efficiently in production and are cheaper to keep. We use bumblebees from Belgium, as domestic ones are an order of magnitude lazier.

The shortage of honey on the world market affects prices - over the past five years, they have increased by almost 3 times. World production now it is about 1.5 million tons, of which 400-450 thousand tons are exported.

But statistics do not take into account the entire volume of honey production. Most beekeepers in the world are hobbyists with up to 10 bee colonies. The honey produced in this sector is distributed among relatives, friends and acquaintances of beekeepers and does not reach the market. It is impossible to determine the true scale of this production. In the USA, beekeepers with up to 5 bee colonies are not counted at all by statistics.

Russia is not in this table, but the volume of honey production in our country is known - just over 100 thousand tons per year, while we export only 400 tons (0.1% of world trade in this product). Potentially, Russia is capable of producing up to 1 million tons of honey per year - it is well known from history that our country was the main producer of this product until the 19th century.

The main exporter of honey is China, but the quality of its product is questioned, as it is saturated with impurities. In the past, China was the main supplier of honey to the United States, but the volume of these supplies has declined after the Department of Commerce imposed an anti-dumping tariff of 221% on Chinese honey. This action was carried out in parallel with the EU ban on the import of Chinese honey contaminated with antibiotics. From 2001 to 2011, the volume of direct exports of Chinese honey to the United States decreased from 17.7 thousand tons to 1.5 thousand tons. In 2009, the anti-dumping tariff on Chinese honey was $2.63 per kilo. In August 2012, this tariff was extended.

The quality of both Chinese and American honey is highly questionable.

At the request of Marler Clark, 60 samples of packaged honey from 11 states were tested for pollen by the Palynological Laboratory of the University of Texas. The results of the analyzes made a sensation. It turned out that in the vast majority of samples there were no traces of pollen, which is an integral component of natural honey.

Pollen was not present in the honey samples of 29 of the most popular brands in the United States, incl. owned by the largest honey companies in the country. Complete sets of pollen were present only in honey purchased from farmers' markets, cooperatives and natural food stores.

Pollen was absent in 76% of samples from grocery departments of supermarkets, 77% from hypermarkets, 100% from pharmacies and 100% from individual portions of honey purchased from enterprises. fast food» McDonald`s, KFC and Smucker.

Among 7 samples of organic honey, pollen was present in 5 (all from Brazil). It was also found in samples from Hungary, Italy and New Zealand, but was absent from honey from Greece.

The participants of the study had a natural question: for what purpose and with the use of what technologies American companies and their brokers remove pollen from honey? Their owners refused to give this information.

The reaction of the beekeepers was just the opposite. The president of the American Honey Producers Association, M. Jensen, stressed that he does not know a single beekeeper in the United States "who would engage in expensive and degrading honey quality ultrafiltration." In his opinion, marketed through American retail chains ultra-filtered honey is nothing more than "imported to the United States bypassing the inspection and in violation of federal laws Chinese product. A large beekeeper, the owner of 80 thousand bee families R. Adi, expressed himself just as categorically: “The only reason for eliminating pollen from honey is the desire to disguise the country of its origin; and almost always that country is China.”

Soldiers found in bee colony for the first time

Warrior bees can prevent attacks by killing bandit scouts

British and Brazilian scientists were the first to notice that certain individuals in bee colonies do nothing but stay at the entrance to the nest for a long time, acting as guards. Bouncers differ from ordinary workers not only in behavior, but also in size.

According to BBC News, warrior bees have been found in a colony of bees of the species Tetragonisca angustula, most common in Brazil. These insects build nests in trees, in the voids of the walls, and in each such settlement there is one queen and up to 10 thousand workers.

Workers at different ages perform different tasks, starting with cleaning the nest, and the position of colony protector is sort of the pinnacle of a worker's career. But not everyone: no more than 1-2% of workers have a chance to reach the rank of soldier - scientists from the University of Sussex claim that bees do not become soldiers, but are born.

Fighting individuals are 30% heavier than relatives, they have disproportionately large legs. Guards are carried by two groups of soldiers: as a rule, several at the entrance are hovering (for early warning of an attack), and others are sitting. Moreover, while in other insects the defenders are on duty during the day, in Tetragonisca angustula guards are on duty for weeks.

As the researchers write in an article published in PNAS, the task of warriors is to resist bees of the species Lestrimelitta limao, whom scientists do not call otherwise than robbers and robbers. These insects invade nests and take food supplies. One full-scale attack can destroy the colony completely.

Warrior Bees can prevent attacks by killing Rogue Scouts. If this fails, the soldiers sacrifice themselves in battle, protecting the colony from the invaders. The guard clings to the wing of the enemy, preventing him from flying, and dies.

K. Bolotov,

Honeycombs become hexagonal without the help of insects

The hexagonal cells of the honeycomb have long fascinated people, which is why bees have always been considered one of the greatest engineers in the natural world because of their ability to fit one cell to another so precisely and proportionately. However, researchers from Cardiff University (Great Britain) believe that the engineering fame of bees is greatly exaggerated: the correct geometric shape of the hexagonal cells of honeycombs arises due to the physical forces acting on them, and insects are only helpers here, writes K. Stasevich (compulenta.computerra.ru) with reference to Nature News.

A regular honeycomb pattern can be made if the cells are triangular, square or hexagonal. The hexagonal shape more than the others allows you to save on the walls, that is, less wax will be spent on honeycombs with such cells. For the first time, such "thriftiness" of bees was noticed in the 4th century AD, and at the same time it was suggested that the bees, when building combs, "are guided by a mathematical plan." However, in the 17th century, the Danish scholar Rasmus Bartholin questioned mathematical ability bees: in his opinion, the insects simply tried to make each cell as large as possible, and the physical forces that acted on the walls in this case gave the cells a hexagonal shape.

In 1917, the Scottish zoologist D'arcy Thomson spoke out in favor of the Danish scientist's hypothesis: in his opinion, the surface tension forces in the wax walls should have turned the bubbles of the wax cells into hexagonal structures, especially these forces should have manifested themselves where the walls of three cells meet. (it should be recalled that even Charles Darwin suggested that initially bees make cells of honeycombs round, but the great naturalist had no proof of this). In 2004, it was experimentally shown that hot wax cells, cooling down, take a hexagonal shape.

All this remained to be verified with the participation of real bees, which was done. Bhushan Karihalu and his colleagues smoked honeycomb-building bees, after which they carefully examined the unfinished structure. It turned out that the freshest cells were round in diameter, while others, molded some time ago, had the usual hexagonal shape. The wax was heated by the bees themselves, with their bodies, to 45 degrees Celsius, and round cells were molded from this soft, fluid mass. Cooling down, the wax balls under the action of surface tension forces took a hexagonal shape.

On the other hand, even if the bees do not sculpt their own hexagons, they still have many tasks that require “engineering skills”: for example, it is necessary to determine the angle of the comb when insects use their own head as a plumb line, or to know exactly cell wall thickness. After all, in this case, the researchers did not directly observe how the bees make round cells, then drop them and move on to the next. In addition, the temperature in the hive may approach that at which the wax begins to soften, so the bees may have to work all the time to keep the cells in a hexagonal shape.

At Scientists have found that in the absence of a queen bee, worker bees "revolt" against their reproductive dominance

Insects develop ovaries and become able to lay their own eggs. The work was published in the journal current biology.

Scientists studied the development of larvae in several bee colonies (bee families) after their natural and experimental separation. At the same time, scientists paid attention to the development of ovaries and special glands in larvae, designed to produce food (royal jelly) for other larvae and the uterus.

Normally, in a bee family, only the queen lays eggs, and her sterile children - worker bees - perform all other functions, including producing food.

It turned out that when during separation (both natural and experimental) there is no uterus in the hive, then the larvae of worker bees growing under such conditions develop well the ovaries, and the glands intended for the production of food, on the contrary, turn out to be underdeveloped. The situation returns to its original state only when the new queen matures and begins to lay her own eggs.

The authors explain this by the fact that during the division of the colony, the inevitable genetic separation of the worker bees and the queen takes place. Prior to the separation of the family, worker bees raise their brothers and sisters. After a queen leaves the hive, the next queen (sister of the worker bees) produces offspring that are twice as genetically distant from the worker population. Not wanting to raise their nephews, some worker bees "revolt" and start laying their own eggs.

Scientists note that despite the well-known in social insects - bees, ants, wasps - reproductive altruism, its source is concern for one's own genes. When a community becomes genetically heterogeneous, it is more profitable to reproduce on your own.

4 million euros will be spent to search for the reasons for the disappearance of bees

The European Commission has allocated 4 million euros to support research aimed at finding out the reasons for the decline in the number of honey bee colonies. The funds will be used until June 2013 to organize observations on the territory of 17 EU member states. this work carried out in connection with the conclusions of the project implemented in 2009 by the European Safety Authority food products(EFSA). The conclusions of this paper point to the lack of information on the extent and reasons for the decline in the number of honey bee colonies in the EU. Among a number of other possible causes of this phenomenon are pesticides. More recently, EFSA has proposed improved methods for assessing the impact of pesticides on bees.

Source: Agrow

Scientists, having studied the behavior of bees, found that mobile communications affect their behavior and reduce the population

Scientists, having placed mobile phones near the hive, observed the behavior of bees. It turned out that 20-40 minutes after turning on the phones, the bees began to make a specific sound calling for swarming. They calmed down, only two minutes later after turning off the cell phones.
However, during the observation, the bees did not start swarming - even 20 hours after the phone was on. However, such an impact mobile phone can have a serious impact on losses in bee colonies, scientists say. Similarly, bees often behave when someone knocks on the hive or opens it. Among the causes that have a deadly effect, scientists also name pesticides that affect nervous system bees, declining wild flowers, modern farming practices. Over the past 25 years, bee populations have halved in the US and UK alone, and this process continues.

Daily Mail Observer

In recent years, there has been a high death rate of honey bees.

Scientists at Purdue University may have identified one of the factors causing the death of bees in agricultural fields.

A two-year study of dead bees in and around hives at several Indiana apiaries revealed the presence of neonicotinoid insecticides, which are widely used to treat corn and soybean seeds before planting. The study showed that these insecticides were present in high concentrations in waste talc emitted from agricultural machinery during sowing.

The insecticides clothianidin and thiamethoxam have also been found at low concentrations in the soil every time - up to two years after sowing treated seeds, on dandelion flowers and in bee-collected corn pollen, according to the results of the study, published in the journal PLoS One.

“We know these insecticides are highly toxic to bees. We found them in every sample of dead and dying bees,” said Christian Krupke, professor of entomology and co-author of the study.

The US loses about a third of honey bee colonies every year. According to Greg Hunt, professor of behavioral genetics at Purdue University, honey bee specialist and co-author of the study. Hunt says no single factor can be blamed, though scientists believe other factors, such as mites and insecticides, all work against bees important for pollinating food crops and wild plants.

Krupke and Hunt received reports that bee deaths in 2010 and 2011 occurred during sowing in beehives near agricultural fields. Toxicological screening by Brian Eitzer, co-author of the study at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, for the presence of a group of pesticides, showed that neonicotinoids used to treat corn and soybean seeds were present in every sample of affected bees. Krupke said other bees in those hives showed shaking, uncoordinated movement and convulsions - signs of insecticide poisoning.

The seeds of most annual crops are covered with neonicotinoid insecticides to protect against soil pests and in the first days after germination after sowing. So, all corn seeds and about half of soybean seeds are processed. The coating is sticky, and in order for the seeds to move freely in the vacuum systems of the planters, they are mixed with talc. Excess talc used in the process is discarded during planting and regular machinery cleaning procedures.

“Given the corn planting rates and the use of talc, we are releasing large amounts of contaminated talc into the environment. The dust is quite light and apparently just as mobile,” says Krupke.

He said that corn pollen brought by bees to the hives later this year contained neonicotinoids below 100 parts per billion.

"This is enough to kill the bees, when consumed a large number an insecticide that is not highly toxic in smaller doses,” he said.

On the other hand, produced talc found extremely high levels of insecticides - 700,000 times the lethal dose for bees.

“Whatever was on the seeds is released into the environment,” says Krupke. “This material is so concentrated that even small amounts of it falling on flowering plants can kill a forager bee or travel to the hive in contaminated nectar. Perhaps that is why we found these insecticides in the pollen that the bees collected and brought to the hive.”

Krupke suggests that efforts be made to reduce or eliminate the release of talc during sowing.

“This is the first target for corrective action,” he says. - This is a huge source of potential pollution environment not only for honey bees, but also for any insects that live in the fields or nearby. The fact that these substances are able to persist for months and years means that plants growing on these soils can absorb them in leaves or pollen.

Although corn and soybean production does not require insect pollination, this is not the case for most food-producing plants. Krupke points out that agriculture will benefit from bee protection, since most fruit trees, hazel and vegetable crops depend on honey bee pollination. The USDA estimates the benefits of honey bees to commercial agriculture at $15-20 billion a year.

Hunt says he will continue to study the sublethal effects of neonicotinoids. In his opinion, for bees not killed by insecticides, effects such as the loss of the ability to find their way home, or less resistance to diseases or mites, are possible.

He adds: "I think it's important to stop and try to understand the risks associated with these insecticides."

The study was funded by the North American Pollinator Defense Campaign and the USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.

Source: N. Biktimirova, Seeddaily.com

Canada is going to reconsider its attitude towards neonicotinoids

The Canadian Pest Management Agency (PMRA) is about to reassess the environmental risks associated with the use of three neonicotinoid insecticides. Special attention will be given to their impact on the state of populations of bees and other pollinators. These insecticides are clothianidin and thiamethoxam, which will be jointly evaluated, and imidacloprid, which is already being tested.

A reassessment will be carried out for all uses of these insecticides in agriculture, including seed treatment, soil treatment, plant spraying and use in closed ground. PMRA notes that this work was initiated based on the "need for new information on risks to pollinators". She added that serious Scientific research on the effect of neonicotinoids on pollinators. In this area, PMRA interacts with international partners who are also involved in drug registration. Together they are trying to develop new methods to improve the risk assessment procedure and develop a system of measures to reduce them.

The PMRA spokesman said he had a report on bee mortality studies in Canada and around the world. If the information received gives reason to believe that there are significant risks for the state of the environment and human health from the use of pesticides, the PMRA will develop appropriate regulations.

The US Environmental Protection Agency stated in 2009 that it intends to conduct a 2011/12 evaluation of six insecticides from the neonicotinoids group. The EU Food Safety Authority recently cast doubt on the findings of two groups of European scientists pointing to the high risks of imidacloprid and thiamethoxam to bee populations. The results of these studies led some of the EU member states to call for a review of the safety of neonicotionides.