The gut microbiome plays an important role in bee health and disease. But it can be disrupted by pesticides and in-hive chemicals, putting honey bee health in danger. We used a controlled and fully crossed laboratory experimental design to test the effects of a 10-day period of chronic exposure to field-realistic sublethal concentrations of two…
Abstract Multiple stressors threaten bee health, a major one being pesticides. Bees are simultaneously exposed to multiple pesticides that can cause both lethal and sublethal effects. Risk assessment and most research on bee health, however, focus on lethal individual effects. Here, we performed a systematic literature review and meta-analysis that summarizes and re-interprets the available…
Bee pollen is a natural cocktail of floral nectar, flower pollen, enzymes, and salivary secretions produced by honeybees. Bee pollen is one of the bee products most enriched in proteins, polysaccharides, polyphenols, lipids, minerals, and vitamins. It has a significant health and medicinal impact and provides protection against many diseases, including diabetes, cancer, infectious, and…
Abstract Varroa mites are highly attracted to drone brood of honey bees (Apis mellifera), as it increases their chance of successful reproduction. Therefore, drone brood removal with trap frames is common practice among beekeepers in Europe and part of sustainable varroa control. However, it is considered labour-intensive, and there are doubts about the effectiveness of…
Abstract Beekeepers have various options to control the parasitic mite Varroa destructor in honey bee colonies, but no empirical data are available on the methods they apply in practice. We surveyed 28,409 beekeepers maintaining 507,641 colonies in 30 European countries concerning Varroa control methods. The set of 19 different Varroa diagnosis and control measures was…
The effects of sulfoxaflor on various pollinators have long been debated. However, there have been few in-hive studies on sulfoximines, and the effects on honey bee colony growth and foraging activity are unknown. Here, we calculated the LC50 of Closer® 24% suspension concentrate (SC) using honey bee foragers and then assessed the impacts of chronic…
Automated bee counters have evolved and become more versatile over the last hundred years. To date, however, there is no method for standardized validation of counting accuracy and thus no reliable data on daily bee losses or background mortality in bee colonies. Such data, however, are urgently needed by regulators to establish future guidelines for…
My paper entitled: A Comprehensive Survey of Phenolic Constituents Reported in Monofloral Honeys around the Globe is finally published! In this paper, I summarised all the phenolic compounds that had been identified in monofloral (single origin) honeys from 130 journal articles. In order to build up this paper, i combined my knowledge in Botany (Plant…
Honeybees are the most prevalent insect pollinator species; they pollinate a wide range of crops. Colony collapse disorder (CCD), which is caused by a variety of biotic and abiotic factors, incurs high economic/ecological loss. Despite extensive research to identify and study the various ecological stressors such as microbial infections, exposure to pesticides, loss of habitat,…
Abstract The diversity of endemic honeybee subspecies and ecotypes is at risk in Europe because modern apiculture promotes only a small number of honeybee strains. A crucial step for the conservation of honeybee diversity is the assessment of the status of remaining wild populations and their limiting factors. Here we present a two-year census of native, wild-living honeybees inhabiting power poles…