IMPACTS ON HONEY BEES AND HONEY BEE DISEASES FROM IN-HIVE MITICIDE USE

This proposal addresses honey bees health. The accessibility of managed bees and the background pollination by feral colonies has declined over the past ten years due largely to varroa mites and viruses. It is extremely important that the causes of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) be found. A correlation between the occurrence of a newly identified virus (Israeli Acute Paralysis) and CCD has been observed but a number of other disease organisms are also found in the dying colonies. We suspect more than one factor is causing colony collapse. Other factors could include in-hive miticides, pesticides collected by bees while foraging, poor nutrition, and stress. The three objectives addressed are to evaluate the impact of in-hive miticides application on 1) viruses of honey bees including prevalence, and titer, 2) honey bee immune function, and 3) longevity, health, and reproductive physiology. Colonies will be randomly assigned to four treatments u control, CheckMite