“We kept hearing anecdotally that these Californian honeybees were surviving with way fewer treatments. I wanted to test them rigorously and understand the driving force behind what the beekeepers were seeing,” said Genesis Chong-Echavez, a UCR graduate student and lead author of the study, in an article from the university.

WHY IT MATTERS: Varroa mites can devastate Canadian beekeepers’ hives, and go-to control methods have become less effective, leading producers to look for new methods to protect honeybees.

Varroa mites are an invasive parasite that has plagued North American beekeepers since the late 1980s. The mites weaken the bees by feeding on their fat stores, and also can carry viruses. Varroa mites are a consistent contender among the top four causes of winter bee loss in Canada, as noted by the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists.

Chong-Echavez’s team found bee colonies led by locally-raised Californian hybrid honeybee queens had about 68 per cent fewer mites, on average, than hives with commercial queens.

While these populations were not entirely varroa mite-free, they were more than five times less likely to hit the threshold at which chemical treatment is necessary.

Local bee larvae attract fewer mites

The resistant bees came from a genetically-mixed population established in southern California — often from “feral” colonies living in trees, the UC Riverside article said. They were found to have mixed ancestry steming from African, eastern European, Middle Eastern and western European genetics.

Varroa mites must enter bee brood cells to reproduce. In lab experiments with developing honeybee larvae, researchers found mites were less attracted to the locally-adapted bees than commercial bees.

“What surprised me most was the differences showed up even at the larval stage,” Chong-Echavez said. “This suggests the resistance mechanism may go deeper than some kind of behaviour and may be genetically built into the bees themselves.”

The research team next intends to investigate the signals that may make the locally-adapted larvae less attractive to mites.

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The study followed nine honey bee colonies during a “particularly hot” Arizona summer to assess the limits of the bees’ ability to control the hive’s temperature according to a release from the University of Chicago Press Journals.

Honey bees maintain their hive temperature between 32°C and 36°C, according to Oregon State University’s extension service. Outside that temperature window, bee larvae and pupae won’t develop and may die.

When the temperature inside the hive gets too hot, the bees line up at the entrance and fan their wings. Other bees will also bring water to the hive to assist with cooling.

Temperature swings

In the study, researchers found that while the bees were able to keep the average temperature around their brood within the acceptable range, the temperature inside the hive still swung widely throughout the day. Developing bees in the centre of the brood experienced about 1.7 hours below the optimal range and 1.6 above the range per day.

Young bees toward the edge of the brood saw nearly eight hours per day outside the safe temperature window.

Larger colonies were better able to regulate temperature than small ones.

Colonies exposed to higher peak air temperatures and greater internal temperature swings saw their populations decline, the researchers found. They concluded that temperatures exceeding 40°C can impair the hive’s ability to regulate temperatures.

This could also shorten adult bees’ lifespan.

The authors of the study noted that extreme heat events are expected to be come more common due to a warming climate.

To help bees regulate temperature, the researchers suggested placing hives in shaded areas, improving hive design and insulation and providing supplemental water. Access to high quality forage may also become increasingly important, they added.

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From Asia to Europe

Tropi’s natural host is the giant honey-bee (Apis dorsata), common across South and Southeast Asia. At some point, the mite jumped to the western honey-bee (Apis mellifera), the species kept by beekeepers around the world. Because this host is widespread, the parasite has steadily moved westwards.

It has now been detected in Ukraine, Georgia and southern Russia, and is suspected to be in Iran and Turkey. From there, it is expected to enter eastern Europe, then spread across the continent. Australia and North America are also at risk.

Why tropi spreads so fast

Like varroa, tropi is a tiny mite that breeds inside capped brood cells, the life stages of the honey-bee when the late larvae and pupae develop inside honeycomb cells that are sealed by a layer of wax. The mite feeds on bee pupae and transmits lethal viruses, such as deformed wing virus – the deadliest of the bee viruses. But there are crucial differences.

Varroa can survive on adult bees for long periods, but tropi cannot. Outside brood cells, it lives only a few days, scurrying across the comb in search of a new larva.

Because tropi spends more time in capped cells, it reproduces quickly. A capped cell that contains a female varroa will result in one or two mated varroa offspring emerging with the adult bee. Tropi offspring develop faster inside a capped cell than varroa offspring, so a tropi “mother” may result in more offspring emerging than a varroa infested cell, more quickly overwhelming the colony.

As a result, colonies infested with tropi can collapse far faster than those plagued by varroa.

Current control methods

In parts of Asia where the parasite is already established, small-scale and commercial beekeepers often manage it by caging the queen for about five weeks.

With no eggs being laid, no brood develops, leaving the mites without a food source. This method is practical where beekeepers manage dozens of hives, but not in places like Europe where commercial operations often involve thousands.

Another option is treating the beehive with formic acid, which penetrates brood cell caps and kills the mite without necessarily harming the developing bee, provided concentrations are kept low. This treatment may offer beekeepers a practical tool.

Why varroa treatments won’t work

Many wonder whether the chemicals used against varroa could also fight tropi. The answer is, mostly no.

Varroa spends much of its life outside of a capped cell clinging to adult bees, where it comes into contact with mite-killing chemicals known as miticides spread through the colony on bee bodies. By contrast, tropi rarely attaches to adults, instead darting across comb surfaces.

Because of this, it is far less exposed to chemical residues. Treatments designed for varroa are often ineffective against the faster-breeding tropi.

Managing both mites together will be particularly difficult. Combining treatments risks harming colonies or contaminating honey. For instance, formic acid for tropi and insecticides such as amitraz for varroa might interact at even low levels, killing the bees as well as the parasites.

There is also the danger of resistance. Over-use of varroa treatments has already produced resistant strains, reducing the effectiveness of several once-reliable chemicals. Introducing more compounds to fight tropi, without careful integrated pest management, could accelerate this process and leave beekeepers with few effective tools.

The wider impact

The spread of tropi will not only devastate beekeepers but also agriculture more broadly. Honey-bees are critical pollinators of many crops. Heavier hive losses will raise costs for both honey production and pollination services, affecting food prices and availability.

Research is underway in countries such as Thailand and China to develop better management strategies. But unless effective and practical treatments are found soon, the spread of this new mite around the world could be catastrophic.

The story of varroa shows how quickly a single parasite can transform global beekeeping. Tropi has the potential to be even worse: it spreads faster, kills colonies more quickly, and is harder to control with existing methods.

— Jean-Pierre Scheerlinck is an honorary professor fellow at Melbourne Veterinary School at the University of Melbourne. The author would like to acknowledge the contribution of Robert Owen, a beekeeper who completed a PhD on the varroa mite at the University of Melbourne in 2022, to this article.

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In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, blanketed by air quality advisories for long stretches of the last few months, that’s been bad news for beekeepers.

“Once bees start getting a lot of fire smoke, they just kind of settle into their hive and they won’t go out,” says Simon Lalonde, president of the Saskatchewan Beekeepers Development Commission.

“They won’t forage for pollen … If you’re doing a queen breeding program, the queens won’t go through their mating flights because it’s too smoky out,” the Clavet-area beekeeper adds.

Lalonde equates heavy smoke to a rainy day — without the benefit of rain.

“The bees are stuck inside doing nothing,” he says. “If there are too many of those days in a row, the queen will start shutting down some of her brood production and, ultimately, that’s not good for the bee population.”

Paul Gregory, vice-chair of the Manitoba Beekeepers Association, raises bees in the Interlake region of Manitoba.

“We’ve had some days in the last three weeks, like two or three days a week that the bees are just not foraging the same,” he says.

Bees are attuned to weather conditions, and having smoke in the ambient air around the hive can make the bees go into emergency mode.

“We’re not noticing the foraging activity on very smoky days,” he says.

He notices the impact in his feeding schedule. Bees in his area go after various types of local flowers and local fruit blossoms, such as cranberry, but lack of foraging means he has to feed more sugar syrup to supplement his hives.

It could also result in less honey production for the year.

Bees start producing honey as soon as the snow melts and crocuses, dandelions and other crops start to emerge.

“They are always bringing in honey, but it’s only the surplus that we harvest,” Gregory notes.

That early honey production, prior to the surplus, goes to bolstering brood and building numbers.

Actual honey harvest usually begins in mid-July.

In some warm, wet springs, there may be enough honey from dandelions to create an early harvestable excess, the beekeeper added, but the reality this year has fallen far short.

As of June 24, Alberta was reporting 51 wildfires in its forest protection area, including 18 classified as out of control, out of 594 so far in the calendar year. Saskatchewan, meanwhile, reported 19 active wildfires, with five deemed not contained, out of 267 so far this year. As of June 23, Manitoba reported 18 active wildfires out of 131 so far this year.

Beekeeping threats mount

Lalonde says last winter was one of the toughest years for Saskatchewan beekeepers. There was more winterkill and more varroa mites.

The parasite has become a bane for beekeepers, weakening bees, transmitting disease and threatening the winter survival of colonies. Some people have lost all their hives because of the mites, Gregory says.

Beekeepers in Saskatchewan are trying to split their hives and make nukes to rebuild their hive numbers, according to Lalonde. He stopped short of raising general alarm about a bad season, though.

“For some beekeepers, the smoke is slowing down some of their bee season and what the bees would normally be doing,” he says, but adds that “We’re still probably early enough that they can recover from it. If we get good weather and a bit of rain, the bees might be able to catch up quite easily.”

One big issue, both this spring and the last few years, has been bears. Some parts of the province have seen larger bear populations.

“There’s a higher bear population up in the north, and then that puts pressure on the young bears and pushes them down south,” he says.

Many beekeepers are taking advantage of Saskatchewan’s bear fence funding program, he adds.

Gergory is more than familiar with bears attacking his honey hives. The trees, rivers and lakes of his region make for good bear country as well. If he has a bee yard near a forest or a river, he puts up an electric fence.

Most of the interlopers, he noted, are “teenage bears,” foraging and curious.

“We’ve had a couple bear hits,” he says.

The weather also isn’t helping this year. In 2021, provincial officials told the Manitoba Co-operator that drought was hindering the function of electric fences. The same is happening in Gregory’s bee yards this year.

“We’ve only had three-quarters of an inch of rain in the last month and a half,” he says. “If the ground is dry … your ground rod is not doing its job, because you have less of a current voltage going through the wires,” he said.

Some older bears will recognize the fence and stay away, but the same cannot be said for the youngsters.

Unlike past years, though, Gregory is not dealing with a season where bears are driven to brave the fence out of a lack of berries.

“Sometimes, every third or fourth year, we get a late frost,” he says. “It kills the native berries and then the bears are starving and it creates a real issue, a real situation with the bears.”

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When honeybees forage, they collect nectar, pollen and water from nearby flowers. These flowers contain traces of the chemicals in the soil and water where they grow.

As honeybees fly, they also pick up dust and other tiny particles from the air and any surfaces they touch. Some of these particles include metals from human activities like burning fossil fuels or industrial pollution.

By the time the bee has returned to its nest it is covered, inside and out, with the chemicals found in its local area. In this way, the honey in a beehive is a mix of everything the bees gather within about a three-kilometer area. Learning how to read the composition of honey will allow us to understand the chemical makeup of any given environment.

The honey produced by the tireless work of the honeybee is nothing short of an untapped goldmine of environmental data that could help us better understand the spread of environmental pollutants.

Bees can help map pollution

Our research — focusing on the Manchester area in the U.K. — proposes using honey as a window into the chemical make-up of a local area. Our team comprised of researchers from Dalhousie University in Canada and the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. We measured metal concentrations in honey collected by citizen scientist beekeepers in northwest England.

Greater Manchester was a major industrial powerhouse. Unfortunately, historical industrial activities often leave behind a legacy of pollution and have been linked to environmental contamination.

Metal contaminants in soil and water from historical industrial activities do not easily disappear. They can be remobilized as dust during activities like building and road construction, or farming. Likewise, metals in surface water and groundwater may also be transferred into flowers via plant roots.

Honey samples were collected by local citizen scientist beekeepers to help determine the distribution of metal pollution across Greater Manchester. Honey samples were gathered over a single season to establish baseline metal concentrations from urban, industrial, residential and agricultural zoning districts. This baseline data can be used in future studies to monitor long-term trends and changes in metal concentrations in the environment.

Average arsenic and cadmium concentrations in Manchester were higher than global averages. Cadmium and lead concentrations were also higher than the recommended World Health Organization and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization guidelines.

These high metal concentrations reflect Manchester’s heavy industrial past. They also reveal pollution patterns from current human activities like transportation and construction.

Natural biomonitors

Rapid urbanization, transportation, industrialization and other human activities has resulted in increased global water, air and soil pollution. Interest in measuring local and global pollution is also increasing.

Current pollution monitoring and reporting in Canada is expensive and focuses on air pollution monitoring under the National Air Pollution Surveillance program. This program was established in 1969 to monitor and assess the long-term air quality in populated regions of Canada and the dataset can be used by governments to assess air pollution trends.

The National Air Pollution Surveillance network comprises 286 sites in 203 communities located in every province and territory across Canada and is managed by the provinces, territories and some municipal governments.

Pollutant releases to air and water from industrial facilities are self-reported by the industries themselves under the National Pollutant Release Inventory. However, this inventory has been criticized for under-reporting of pollutants, and a lack of information related to how toxic the pollution can be.

Because these traditional methods can be expensive and time-consuming, government agencies and researchers need cost-effective monitoring tools to holistically track environmental pollutants such as heavy metals. Our research suggests that honey could be just the cost-effective monitoring tool governments are looking for.

Researchers in Vancouver have already run studies to measure metals like lead and cadmium in honey from hives in Vancouver’s downtown core. Analysis in 2019 found that the honey was clean, well below global averages for heavy metals like lead.

Although the honey in downtown Vancouver was perfectly safe to eat, they also discovered higher levels of metals in honey collected from nearby industries or densely populated areas. Efforts to map pollution using honey in Australia and Italy have also been effective.

Biomonitoring pollution in Canada

Because bees collect nectar, pollen and water from flowers within a three-kilometer area, they offer a seasonal snapshot of local environmental pollution.

Although there are nearly 300 National Air Pollution Surveillance sites across Canada, there are nearly one million bee hives offering even greater national coverage. These cost-effective pollution monitoring sites would complement existing pollution monitoring networks.

With beekeeping rising in popularity, this allows for community participation in biomonitoring studies like ours. Canada’s more than 13,000 beekeepers are a critical untapped resource of citizen scientists that could be vital to measuring long-term trends of harmful metals and other contaminants across Canada.

—Tony Robert Walker is a professor at the School for Resource and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University. Simon Harper is a professor of computer science at the University of Manchester.

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Statistics Canada reported 78.18 million pounds of honey were produced in 2024, which compares with 95.65 million pounds the previous year.

The value of honey produced was estimated at C$214.13 million, down from C$283.53 million in 2023.

Meanwhile, the number of beekeepers in the country hit the highest level since 1988, at 15,430. The 829,120 bee colonies reported were the second largest on record of the past 100 years of data.

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Witnesses at a meeting of the House of Commons standing committee on agriculture and agri-food last Wednesday presented recommendations for what the government could do to resolve issues of honeybee health decline and bee mortality.

The most recent risk assessment on the subject was done in 2013. It concluded there was a “high probability of introducing diseases and pests into Canada due to importation of honeybees from the continental United States.”

Several of the witnesses said they believe new regulations are needed.

Jeremy Olthof, past-president of the Alberta Beekeepers Commission (ABC), recommended the U.S./Canada border be reopened — specifically to northern California, where many package bees originate from.

He said the 2013 risk assessment was “based on confirmation bias, not fact” according to peer review.

ABC’s Ron Greidanus said in the meeting that the border measures are ineffective at keeping out pests such as varroa mite, as they could easily cross the border on their own.

It’s a “fallacy,” he said, to consider the border as “a wall or a force-field. It is a figment of human imagination; pests and pathogens do not see it.”

Current regulations allow queens to be imported from Hawaii and California, but not package bees. A 2022 report from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada lists only Australia, New Zealand and Chile as sources of package honeybee imports since 2017.

One of Greidanus’s suggestions for mitigating risks was for Canada to work jointly with the U.S. to develop a North American bee strategy.

The 2013 report identified four main threats: resistant American foulbrood, Amitraz-resistant varroa mite, small hive beetle, and Africanized honeybees.

Greidanus said that resistant American foulbrood and Amitraz-resistant varroa both exist in Canada already, while small hive beetle and Africanized honeybees both fail to establish and thrive in Canada’s climate.

B.C. apiculture specialist Paul Van Westendorp said he endorsed the idea of a new risk assessment. “A lot of things can change in 10 years,” he said.

He also said the 2013 assessment was not universally supported by the scientific community, meaning it may be time for an update.

— Jonah Grignon reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

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A single Asian giant hornet was found Saturday at Aldergrove, near the intersection of Fraser Highway and Highway 13 — about five km from where another was found at Abbotsford, on the 7000 block of Bradner Road, on Nov. 2.

No nests have yet been discovered in the area, and any Asian giant hornet activity is expected to decline “rapidly” as colder temperatures arrive.

Nevertheless, the provincial ag ministry on Tuesday called on beekeepers and the public to continue reporting any sightings to the Invasive Species Council of B.C.

The two new findings are believed to line up with a phase in the giant hornets’ life cycle, in which they disperse from their nests and seek out new hornets for mating, the province said.

The giant hornet is widely distributed in Asia, from southern China through to the Korean peninsula and northern Japan. It’s not known how it got to Canada’s West Coast but container ships have been suggested as the most likely mode of transport.

Apart from the risk to people and animals from stings — known to be particularly painful, given the size of the hornet — the main concern for farmers and honey producers is the risk to bees and other pollinators if the giant hornet is able to get established in the region.

Asian giant hornets hunt insects for food, are able to feed on honeybees and can destroy beehives within a short time period. They’re known to attack people or animals only if the hornets’ nests are disturbed.

Survey efforts in B.C. have so far focused on surveillance and trap monitoring along 0 Avenue — a road running parallel to the U.S. border, from the Peace Arch east to Abbotsford — and on Vancouver Island at Nanaimo, where a nest was found and destroyed last year.

Single hornets were found at White Rock and Langley in 2019, and on 0 Avenue at Langley in 2020, the province said, noting no nest has never been found in B.C.’s Fraser Valley or Lower Mainland.

However, the province noted, state entomologists in neighbouring Washington last month eradicated a nest after “multiple” findings of single Asian giant hornets in the same area of Blaine, just across the Canada-U.S. border from White Rock.

Asian giant hornets have noticeably large orange heads and black eyes, and are known to nest in the ground, rather than in trees or buildings.

The worker hornets of the species are usually around 3.5 cm long, while the queens can grow up to four to five cm long, with wingspans of up to seven cm.

Several large insects common to the region, including yellow jackets, bald faced hornets, elm sawflies and horntail wasps, could be mistaken for Asian giant hornets, the B.C. ag ministry said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The stinging hornet, whose queens can grow as large as 2-1/2 inches in length, could potentially pose a threat to humans and the beekeeping industry, Washington state agriculture officials said Friday.

Joel Nielsen, who lives near Custer, Wash., about 16 km from the Canada-U.S. border, spotted the dead insect while walking on a roadway on Wednesday, took a photograph of it and reported the sighting to agriculture officials using an online form.

Sven-Erik Spichiger, managing entomologist at the Washington state Department of Agriculture, said state and federal labs confirmed Friday that the Custer specimen was an Asian giant hornet.

Nielsen’s sighting, the third in that part of the state, comes just days after B.C. provincial officials confirmed Canada’s first finding of 2020, near Langley, in its furthest appearance inland so far.

According to local media, a resident stepped on a hornet May 15 and reported the dead pest to provincial officials, who identified it as an Asian giant.

“Preliminary results indicate that this is a queen, but that is going to be unofficial and pending further investigation at the lab in D.C. And what that means is more than likely a nest was able to produce breeding queens and make it through the winter,” Spichiger told reporters at a virtual news conference.

Spichiger called the finding a victory in the hoped-for eradication of the species.

“When you remove a queen, you’re basically killing the nest, especially this time of year. So we can kind of count this as a victory,” he said. “That makes us all very happy here.”

Spichiger warned, though, that the discovery could indicate more hornets in the area. If worker hornets start showing up later in the year in Department of Agriculture traps, that will indicate colonies are established, he said.

British Columbia’s agriculture ministry also wants people in the region who may have seen Asian giant hornets to report sightings to the Invasive Species Council of B.C., with photos if possible.

The so-called “murder hornet” is widely distributed in eastern Asia, from the sub-tropics of southern China to temperate zones of the Korean peninsula and northern Japan, B.C. officials said. It’s not known how it got to the West Coast but container ships have been suggested as the most likely mode of transport.

The Asian giant hornet made its first appearance in Canada last August when three were found at Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. Another Asian giant was found in November on the B.C. mainland, at White Rock.

The U.S. in December confirmed its first finding by a homeowner in Blaine, Wash., just south of White Rock.

The Asian giant, a predator of honeybees and other large insects, establishes ground nests and forages as far as eight km from its nest, B.C. officials said in September. They noted the hornets are dormant, thus unlikely to be seen, in fall and winter.

The hornets, which have noticeably large orange heads and black eyes, are able to feed on honeybees and destroy beehives in a short time period.

The B.C. ag ministry has noted several large insects common to the region — such as yellow jackets, bald faced hornets, elm sawflies and horntail wasps — could be mistaken for Asian giant hornets.

The giant hornets do not generally target people, pets or large livestock, but can attack when threatened or if their nest is disturbed.

— Reporting for Reuters by Jane Ross; writing by Diane Craft. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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Recently I was speaking with three researchers in Alberta working to identify and quantify the invisible crop disease spores that fly around in the air that could potentially infect crops with diseases such as sclerotinia in canola, fusarium head blight, in cereal crops and white mould in pulse crops — just for starters.

They are working with or developing technology referred to as biosensors. The biosensors mounted in the field at about crop canopy height collect the airborne spores (and anything else flying by). That’s the relatively easy part. The head scratcher comes in developing a DNA test (it can involve developing antibodies that bind with very specific disease spores) that can identify what disease it is, but also quantify it as well.

So components inside these little biosensors boxes collect the spores — today we have some sclerotinia spores and a few of these are fusarium head blight spores, and oh, yes we also have some rust spores. So you know what’s flying around out there, but then the sensors can also quantify the spore load as well. Perhaps the sclerotinia spore load is very heavy, while the fusarium head blight spore load is light. All good information.

But wait, there’s more. The goal is not just to identify what’s floating around out there, but also have these devices deliver some sort of alert to a farmer. At Agriculture Canada in Lethbridge they are working to develop a colour-coding system for the biosensor, to identify each disease with a different colour. For example, if you see red that’s fusarium head blight, while blue is sclerotinia and so on.

At the InnoTech Alberta research centre in Vegreville, the plan is to have their biosensor read and quantify the spores and then send a message via Bluetooth to the farmer’s smart phone. “There’s a heavy load of sclerotinia spores over your canola crop, you better be prepared to apply a fungicide.”

And all this research is working with microscopic particles, identifying antibodies or rapid DNA tests to provide an early (real time) warning system to farmers about the risk (or better yet no risk) of disease development. Scientists Claudia Sheedy at the Lethbridge research centre, and Susie Li at the Innotech centre in Vegreville takes it all in stride — “yes it’s a challenge, but we’ll get there.” Both researchers hope or expect over the next two or three growing seasons to be lining up some commercialization of their respective technology.

Locating locusts

And if counting spores isn’t enough of a challenge, I was reading in the Western Producer where at the University of Saskatchewan PhD biology student Rachel Parkinson and biology professor Jack Gray are wrangling locusts to measure the effect of neonicotinoid (commonly referred to as neonic) insecticides on flying insects.

They built a one metre wide and tall wind tunnel, two metres long. It has a fan to create airflow, and on one end is a projector screen where they project a dot that can be enlarged to simulate an obstacle that is getting closer as it is grows in size.

Here’s the tricky part. To prevent the flying locusts from smacking into the far wall they tie a rope (actually it is fishing line) to a locust leg allowing it to still be able to fly into the wind current. Some bugs are exposed to a low dose of neonics and others aren’t. The point of the project is to observe how well or how differently the treated versus untreated bugs fly and take evasive measures to avoid hitting the approaching dot. Parkinson says it is pretty clear the treated locusts appear to be confused and have trouble manoeuvring. But she’s not done yet. She plans to repeat the project this year using honeybees. Never mind the results, I think it would be interesting just to see her apply tethers to a bunch of bees. Maybe she does it while they are sleeping.

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