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Efficacy and Toxicity of VarroMed® Used for Controlling Varroa destructor Infestation in Different Seasons and Geographical Areas

VarroMed® is a soft acaricide registered for honey bees on the European Union market since 2017 for Varroa control. Researchers involved were partners of different countries of the Varroa control task force of the COLOSS Association. Our goal was to evaluate performances (acaricide efficacy and toxic effects on honey bees) of VarroMed® in different climatic…

Resistance and Vulnerability of Honeybee (Apis mellifera) Gut Bacteria to Commonly Used Pesticides

Agricultural and apicultural practices expose honeybees to a range of pesticides that have the potential to negatively affect their physiology, neurobiology, and behavior. Accumulating evidence suggests that these effects extend to the honeybee gut microbiome, which serves important functions for honeybee health. Here we test the potential effects of the pesticides thiacloprid, acetamiprid, and oxalic…

Pollination and Plant Reproductive Success of Two Ploidy Levels in Red Clover (Trifolium pratense L.)

Plant reproduction in red clover requires cross-fertilization via insect pollination. However, the influences of visitation rate and timing on maximizing ovule utilization are yet to be determined. We aimed to study the influences of visitation rate, flowering stage, and self-incompatibility on reproductive success. We applied hand and honey bee pollination in the study of eight…

Citizen Scientist Initiative for measuring Varroa damage thresholds: common efforts for data collection – CSI Varroa

A Bee World article on the use of Citizen Scientist on varroa research. Citizen Science is the involvement of volunteers in science and CSI Varroa project is an initiative of COLOSS members, started at the end of 2018, aiming to gain more knowledge about varroa infestation thresholds above which beekeepers start observing economic damages, and…

Different pollination approaches to compare the seed set of diploid and tetraploid red clover Trifolium pratense L.

In red clover seed production, low seed yield is limiting the commercial exploitation of tetraploid red clover. To explore if pollination is the limiting factor for the seed yield in tetraploid red clover, we investigated pollinator behaviour and plant reproductive success in diploid (2x) cultivar ‘Rajah’ and tetraploid (4x) cultivar ‘Amos’ using honey bee and…

Long-term field-realistic exposure to a next-generation pesticide, flupyradifurone, impairs honey bee behaviour and survival

Abstract: Simone Tos, James C. Nieh, Annely Brandt, Monica Colli, Julie Fourrier, Herve Giffard, Javier Hernández-López, Valeria Malagnini, Geoffrey R. Williams, Noa Simon-Delso The assessment of pesticide risks to insect pollinators have typically focused on short-term, lethal impacts. The environmental ramifications of many of the world’s most commonly employed pesticides, such as those exhibiting systemic…

Trends in Ecology & Evolution – Volume 36, Issue 7

Many different pollinators often visit the same flower, as seen in this image where a buff-tailed bumble bee (Bombus terrestris), a red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) and a small sweat bee (Lasioglossum sp.) are sharing a plume thistle Cirsium rivulare flower.  On pages 623-636, Willem Proesmans and colleagues discuss how sharing of flowers in this way is a potential…

Are Honey Bees at Risk from Microplastics?

Microplastics (MPs) are ubiquitous and persistent pollutants, and have been detected in a wide variety of media, from soils to aquatic systems. MPs, consisting primarily of polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyacrylamide polymers, have recently been found in 12% of samples of honey collected in Ecuador. Recently, MPs have also been identified in honey bees collected from…