Abstract Various treatments are currently available for the control of Varroa mites. Some of these treatments depend on using natural and nonchemical compounds. In this study, the impacts of some materials (oxalic acid, thymol, and potassium citrate) on the survival of honey bees and some quality parameters were investigated under laboratory conditions. The potential impacts…
Abstract We measured the distribution of sugar solution within groups of caged honey bees (Apis mellifera) under standard in vitro laboratory conditions using 14C polyethylene glycol as a radioactive marker to analyze ingestion by individual bees after group feeding. We studied the impact of different experimental setups by varying the number of bees, age of bees, origin of…
Abstract The western honeybee, Apis mellifera is a prominent model organism in the field of sociogenomics and a recent upgrade substantially improved annotations of the reference genome. Nevertheless, genome assemblies based on short-sequencing reads suffer from problems in regions comprising e.g. multi-copy genes. We used single-molecule nanopore-based sequencing with extensive read-lengths to reconstruct the organization of the major…
Abstract The honeybee (Apis mellifera) has been threatened by multiple factors including pests and pathogens, pesticides and loss of locally adapted gene complexes due to replacement and introgression. In western Europe, the genetic integrity of the native A. m. mellifera (M-lineage) is endangered due to trading and intensive queen breeding with commercial subspecies of eastern…
Abstract In global industry, the steady pursuance of miniaturization has led to the creation of minute particles, the nanoparticles (NPs; 0.1– 100 nm).The industrial division that deals with NPs is defined as nanotechnology, which is still young and promising and has been developing quickly for the last 20 years. Unluckily, very limited information is available…
Abstract Insect pollinators are essential to global food production. For this reason, it is alarming that honey bee (Apis mellifera) populations across the world have recently seen increased rates of mortality. These changes in colony mortality are often ascribed to one or more factors including parasites, diseases, pesticides, nutrition, habitat dynamics, weather and/or climate. However,…
Abstract In this short note we present comparable loss rates of honey bee colonies during winter 2015/16 from 29 countries, obtained with the COLOSS questionnaire. Altogether, we received valid answers from 19,952 beekeepers. These beekeepers collectively wintered 421,238 colonies, and reported 18,587 colonies with unsolvable queen problems and 32,048 dead colonies after winter. This gives…
Abstract Authors: Sofia Levin1,2, Noa Sela3 & Nor Chejanovsky1 1 Department of Entomology, Institute of Plant Protection, Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, Rishon LeZion, 7528809, Israel. 2 Institute of Agroecology and Plant Health, Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, 76100, Israel. 3 Department of Plant Pathology and Weed Research, Institute of Plant Protection,…
Abstract Propolis is a multifunctional material collected and used by honey bees in the construction and maintenance of their hives. It has been used in folk medicine for centuries. Concentrations of major constituents and antioxidant characteristicsof ethanolic extracts of three samples of propolis (EEPs) collected from different geographical locations in Canada (Saskatchewan, Ontario and British…
Abstract Honeybee colonies (Apis mellifera) serve as attractive hosts for a variety of pathogens providing optimal temperatures, humidity, and an abundance of food. Thus, honeybees have to deal with pathogens throughout their lives and, even as larvae they are affected by severe brood diseases like the European Foulbrood caused by Melissococcus plutonius. Accordingly, it is highly…