Daffodil Lane: More Bee news because I'm in the mood

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May 16, 2007

More Bee news because I'm in the mood

The honeybee's alarm signal may not only bring help, but also attract the small hive beetle. Now, an international team of researchers has found that small hive beetles can detect some alarm pheromones at levels below that detected by honeybees.
The beetles associate the alarm chemicals with a good food source and head for the hive. In Africa, where the small hive beetle is a minor honeybee pest, bees quickly isolate an invading beetle, but domesticated European honeybees are not as diligent in cleaning their hives. The beetles are also aided in their invasion by a yeast that naturally occurs on pollen and produces, as a fermentation product, the alarm chemical that draws the beetles.

"It is possible that bees are being habituated to a low level of alarm hormone," says James H. Tumlinson, the Ralph O. Mumma Professor of Entomology and director of the Penn State Center for Chemical Ecology.

While small hive beetles are common in Africa and pose little threat to African honeybee hives, it appears that domesticated European honeybees have a much harder time containing the beetles in their hives. European honeybees were bred to be docile and easy to work with, while African honeybees are noted for aggression and a propensity to sting. The beetles were first seen infesting U.S. beehives in Florida in the late 1990s.

The researchers don't think this is related to the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), but it's an interesting view into how changes we made in the industrialization of the bee process is negatively effecting their ability to defend themselves.

It's a pretty crazy idea, a yeast that actually triggers an alarm reaction in the bees continuously. It would make your hives very aggressive and that would make them very unproductive. If you didn't know what you were doing you might think your hive had fallen to killer bees, when the reality is that they are under attack by beetles. There are always dangers when you make something too docile, that it won't be able to defend itself on it's own. Sometimes you need to have a little mean in your life, just in case you need it some time down the road. Hopefully we have enough biodiversity left that we can breed back in the parts that we need and get around this problem as well as the CCD problem. A lot of food for thought.