Bee Parasites and Diseases in Your Hive

[00:00:00] John Moore: Pollinators, bees in particular, have crucial roles to play in our world. But the threat of parasites on a colony can be daunting. What’s a beekeeper to do? In this episode, we are excited to be talking with entomologist Dr. Sammy Ramsey. We’ll be chatting about some of Dr. Ramsey’s expertise and research on insects, and we’ll be tackling the topic of protecting bees from parasites and preventing them from wreaking havoc on your hives.

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Preventing and Treating Bee Parasites in Your Hives

[00:01:37] Kenny Coogan: Good day everyone, and we appreciate you for joining us on another exciting Mother Earth News and Friends podcast. I am Kenny Coogan, and joining me today is Dr. Sammy Ramsey, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado and the founder and director of the Ramsey Research Foundation. At MOTHER EARTH NEWS [00:02:00] for 50 years and counting, we have been dedicated to conserving our planet’s natural resources while helping you conserve your financial resources.

[00:02:10] Today we are going to learn about preventing and treating parasites in your beehives. Dr. Sammy is your friendly neighborhood entomologist. His extensive research on insects demonstrates their need and their value. Dr. Sammy’s groundbreaking research has garnered international praise and recognition for its significant contributions. Always looking to forward scientific progress, diversity, and innovation, his career is distinguished by excellence and perseverance. Dr. Sammy was featured on the cover of the April/May 2022 Backyard Beekeeping magazine, which is a division of MOTHER EARTH NEWS.

[00:02:58] Welcome to the program, [00:03:00] Dr. Sammy.

[00:03:01] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: So glad to be here.

[00:03:03] Kenny Coogan: So, Dr. Sammy, in the intro I mentioned your national and international praise and awards, one of which was the American Bee Research Conferences Award for Distinguished Research. Can you tell the listeners what that award was for?

[00:03:19] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: So the American Bee Research Conferences, uh, Award for Distinguished Research was one that I was really proud to receive because I had just really powered through this project about Varroa mites and how they feed on honeybees, and it was very new work. Um, we’re, I don’t know, eight years out from that now. Oh my gosh. I’m getting up there. I’m getting old. Uh, maybe six years out from that. Um, but eight years out from when I actually started that project. And it was about how these mites that we have thought of for ages as vampires are actually feeding on the bees fat body, this important organ for them that, uh, some of you have [00:04:00] already heard about from other podcasts and things that I’ve done.

[00:04:02] And I wasn’t sure how well received this would be because that was a perspective that we had held for more than half a century. And when you show up and the first thing that you say to everybody is, “You are wrong about something you’ve thought forever,” it doesn’t always go well, but it went really well.

The Ramsey Research Foundation

[00:04:20] Kenny Coogan: Now through donations, large and small, the Ramsey Research Foundation has been able to fund critical research, which could not have happened otherwise. Currently funds are supporting international initiatives to understand biological threats to honeybees and other pollinators from around the world.

[00:04:37] Why would these research initiatives not be funded historically? Why is there a need for the Ramsey Research Foundation?

[00:04:45] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: I really appreciate that question. Uh, cuz that’s not always obvious, especially when you’re on the outside of the scientific proc, uh, process looking in. Uh, the ways that things work in academia and in government is that there’s a fairly small amount of money out there, and [00:05:00] often quite a few people, uh, who are trying to get at that set of resources. And so the projects in a lot of ways are ranked on a basis of, um, what is particularly important or germane right now? How much money will it take? And when it comes to the question of what is important right now, organisms that are currently causing problems are the ones that take precedence.

[00:05:23] Varroa destructor is here, right now, kicking bees butts every day. But the Tropilaelaps mite, the Euvarroa mite, and some of these other parasites and pathogens that we can find in Southeast Asia aren’t here right now. And the concerns that they pose are entirely potential concerns. And so in terms of weighing out where the funds are going to go, oftentimes it’s not for the preventative measures as much, but more the reactionary measures of how do we fix the problem that’s currently here. And I understand why that would be the case, but it doesn’t allow us to keep our eye on [00:06:00] the ball and make sure that we are, uh, protecting ourselves from the kinds of concerns that will mount up in the future.

[00:06:05] And so the Ramsey Research Foundation is trying to be forward leaning and look into the parasites, the pathogens, the, the predators and and issues for honeybees that are still off on the horizon. That if we understand them now, we can do a whole lot to protect our population of pollinators in the future.

Varroa and Euvarroa Mites

[00:06:21] Kenny Coogan: You mentioned the Varroa and the Euvarroa. Do you know the entomology? The words, what does Varroa mean?

[00:06:29] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: Ah, so the, the, the etymology here.

[00:06:31] Kenny Coogan: Etymology. Thank you.

[00:06:33] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: No, no, no worries at all. I, I, I am frequently referred to as an etymologist, and I just accept the title because I love words, uh, almost as much as I love bugs.

[00:06:43] The etymology of Varroa and Euvarroa is not something that I am actually up on. I’ve looked this up before and was trying to figure out where the terms actually came from, because I know Varroa jacobsoni, which is what this species was originally described [00:07:00] as before we figured out that there were multiple species of Varroa. Of course, Jacob Soni was a researcher who they paid homage to by putting his name in the binomial name of this organism, but the actual genus name of Varroa? I don’t really know. Euvarroa means “true Varroa”, which is interesting. But what is the Varroa?

[00:07:20] Kenny Coogan: Well, I can assume that “destructor” is not a great organism.

[00:07:24] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: It’s not great. It is not great. The “destructor” element of it, I think was really wise. Uh, when they were, they, they found out that Varroa was actually made up of a bunch of different species, four species, and one was traveling around the world and destroying honeybees in every country that I went to.

[00:07:42] So giving it the name Varroa destructor and helping people truly take it seriously, I think was a great idea. I’ve been told it sounds like a Transformer or something, but I still think it works.

More than Just Honeybees

[00:07:52] Kenny Coogan: So you study insects, but primarily bees from all over the world. And Mother Earth News and Friends listeners [00:08:00] and readers likely raise honeybees, provide nectar sources for them, or provide homes for solitary native bees.

[00:08:08] So, since we’re on the name game, can you give us some of the species of bees that they may be familiar with or species that you work with?

[00:08:19] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: So I have primarily worked with Apis mellifera. Now that’s the honeybee that’s most broadly distributed around the world. It has a cosmopolitan distribution and it’s really the money maker of the honeybees, so it’s not surprising that that’s the one that pays the bills. But I’ve been very strongly encouraging others within the scientific community to really connect more with the fact that we’ve been talking a lot about saving the bees, but the primary focus and the primary pot of money has been dedicated to one species. So we’ve really been talking about saving the bee.

[00:08:54] So I’ve been conducting more work on pith nesting species of bees, um, bees [00:09:00] that find like these pieces of grass and things, uh, reeds by rivers that have dried out and they’ll make an entire family in there, start raising their, their offspring, things like leafcutter bees and other, uh, organisms like that. And they’re important to the ecology in a lot of ways that the honeybees simply aren’t. Honeybees, um, Apis mellifera specifically, is not a native species pretty much anywhere that’s not Europe. And so the fact that, that that particular fact means that they’re not particularly important to, um, maintaining the ecosystem in its most natural context. But they’re very important for us maintaining our factory farming system and, uh, maintaining all the foods and things that we grow on a regular basis.

[00:09:42] But in addition to Apis mellifera, there are eight other, it depends on who you talk to, species of honeybees. Um, and I’ve had the opportunity to work with five of them in Southeast Asia, so I’ve gotten the opportunity to work with, uh, Apis cerana, which is the most closely related to Apis [00:10:00] mellifera. It’s a cavity nesting bee, cute little guys. Uh, Apis florea, one of the most adorable bees you’ll ever see in your life. Imagine Apis mellifera shrunk down to less than half its size, and then with a bright red abdomen with yellow stripes. Adorable. Uh, Apis, uh, dorsata, which are the giant honeybees, one of the species of giant honeybees that make those big nests on cliffs. And then I recently found the rarest species of honeybee, uh, throughout Southeast Asia, um, Apis andreniformis. Oh, they’re adorable. They’re called the dwarf black bee. They’re the smallest honeybee species in the world, and they’re so cute.

[00:10:38] So the opportunity to work with all these different bees really helps you understand the diversity of honeybees, how they manage parasites and diseases, and how our bees could potentially be better at managing their own parasites and diseases.

[00:10:50] Kenny Coogan: Maybe unrelated. Yesterday I saw a photo of Osmia bicolor, the two colored mason bee , or maybe the common name is [00:11:00] the witch bee. And it was flying around on this little, uh, like grass stock and it looked like a witch.

[00:11:06] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: I love when scientists lean into just being very nerdy and, and creative with how they name these things, cuz when you first see it, especially if you see pictures of it, you’ll think, why would they call it the witch bee? But when you see it carrying this stalk that looks like a broom that’s longer than its entire body, you get it immediately.

[00:11:24] Kenny Coogan: So, uh, your expertise is in parasites and people are raising bees. And of course they want to prevent and maybe treat the parasites if they come.

[00:11:34] So are we primarily talking about the European honeybee and their parasites, or are we concerned about other, are we concerned about like native solitary bees getting parasites as well?

[00:11:49] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: So when I was a graduate student, I had to really focus my attention just on Apis mellifora. Um, grad school is not the time to try to do a [00:12:00] broad project. It’s the time to focus very, very, very much on one subject and become that expert.

[00:12:06] But when I first entered grad school, I wanted to study a bunch of pith nesting native bees because the population of parasites that exist with them is really, really, really fascinating and pretty broad and diverse. Um, but I focused in on Apis mellifora, really glad that I did. And now that I have my own lab, I get the opportunity to do something that really excites me. Um, I get to work with students, undergraduate students, graduate students, uh, masters, PhD, post-docs, and lab technicians, all a part of my lab right now. And some of them are working with native bees, some of them are working with honeybees.

[00:12:44] Um, the lab is called the Boulder Bee Lab and I didn’t want it to be the Boulder Honeybee Lab specifically cause I wanted that context for us to look at the rest of the pollinators. And so one of my students is working with, um, pith nesting bees and bumblebees, and I think it’s gonna [00:13:00] absolutely phenomenal to better understand the parasite populations with them.

Common Bee Parasites in Backyard Hives

[00:13:05] Kenny Coogan: So, I dunno if this list is long, but what parasites do honeybees or European bees that people are raising, which ones are they most likely to encounter in their backyard hive? Is it a long list or is there some, uh, that are more prominent?

[00:13:22] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: There are definitely some that are more prominent. But here’s the thing, these parasites are from different regions of the world. They can’t always do so well. In a country as huge as the U.S., they’re not always gonna do great in every part of it. And so if we’re talking about the South, then you’re likely to see things like small hive beetles running around inside of colonies, and they’re a parasite that are pretty heavily limited by how long the winter is and how harsh the winter is.

[00:13:50] So if you go all the way up to Wisconsin, you’re probably not gonna have any issues with, uh, small hive beetle in, uh, areas. There are areas of the U.S. that they’re not, they haven’t even reached [00:14:00] yet in the North because it’s just, too frosty. Um, but you’re most likely to see Varroa destructor.

[00:14:07] Uh, the Honeybee Disease Survey, the National Honeybee Disease Survey, uh, and other, uh, research projects conducted on better understanding the distribution of parasites and diseases in honeybee colonies have shown that this parasite is ubiquitous. The question isn’t, do you have Varroa in your colonies? The question is how many? And so when you reach threshold, that’s when it typically becomes a big problem. But they’re there.

[00:14:30] Um, there’s also the, uh, wax moths, which are parasites that can run wild with a colony after it’s already been weakened. And then you have intestinal parasites like Nosema, these tiny little, uh, microsperidian fungi that’ll get into the digestive system of your bees. And, uh, one species of it, um, can actually give your bees dysentery where they will paint the front of your colony with their waste. It’s rather sad to see, but [00:15:00] they can get over it if they’re strong enough and if the colony is able to get enough pollen to raise another generation that is not heavily infected.

Hive to Hive Parasite Transmission

[00:15:08] Kenny Coogan: So over at Backyard, Backyard Poultry, we’re very concerned about biosecurity and avian flu and wild birds affecting our backyard flocks. So I’m in Florida, the land of the citrus. And I know that lots of people from up north, not people but businesses, are moving bees, honeybees, you know, by semi trucks….

[00:15:32] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: You could consider businesses to be people, you know?

[00:15:36] Kenny Coogan: That’s true. They move ’em, uh, to Florida. They move them to California to service the almond fields. So how concerned are we about like hive to hive parasite transmission? Are we concerned about moving the bees north to south? Up and down?

[00:15:55] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: I see you over here making connections. Kenny, I see you. I see you.

[00:15:58] Uh, so I didn’t realize that [00:16:00] there was so much movement of, um, poultry while they’re alive, like back and forth to all these different locations. We do the same thing, of course, with honeybees for migratory beekeeping. And it’s not just the almonds, though the almonds are probably the most famous of them. They’re kind of the Superbowl of, of honeybees. But moving them to cranberry bogs, moving them to pollinate, um, citrus and things, it, it can be quite a lot for our honeybees because if they’re, regardless, they’re going to be stressed out. This is a stressful time. Imagine somebody put you in a crate, tied everything shut, and just drove you halfway across the country, and then you end up in a new area that you’ve never seen before with millions of other bees all flying around with you.

[00:16:43] So if those bees are already sick, for whatever reason, or if they happen to have an infection that is asymptomatic, those infections can really start to, uh, become really problematic for the bees because stress, uh, has a pretty substantial impact on an organism’s immune [00:17:00] system. Uh, same with people, same with bees.

[00:17:02] So there are inspectors who go around and they try their best, even though typically there aren’t enough of them to really do this work as well as it it, um, as well as we would like for it to be done. Inspectors will go around and they will look at the colonies before they’re shipped off, uh, kind of certified that they are at contract strength and that they’re healthy enough to do this process of pollinating.

[00:17:24] And that does help to cut down on, on some levels of disease being spread in these contexts. But we know for sure that when we move these bees across the country, there are some of them that get there that are sick, that unfortunately then, uh, are able to spread those ailments to other bees. And then when those bees are brought back to their original home, you just have this cycling of parasites and disease moving around the U.S.

[00:17:48] Kenny Coogan: Are the bees transmitting the parasites at like a communal flower, or are they….?

[00:17:54] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: So. There’s actually been some really good research on this. Um, you guys should really [00:18:00] look for, um, the work of Dr. Laura Figueroa. She is this super cool bee researcher, uh, studying, uh, a lot of different native bee species and really looking at how there’s potential spillover of pathogens from honeybees to other bees.

[00:18:15] And one of the really fascinating things that, that she and, uh, some of her colleagues were able to look at was, um, flowers as sort of the dirty doorknobs of disease transmission. And, uh, she was able to show that when bees that are sick with certain kinds of, um, certain kinds of, of, um, parasitic bacterial diseases, they can land on a flower and when they evacuate, and which happens a lot when you’re sick, uh, unfortunately some of that gets into the nectar and then the next bee that comes to visit can be infected.

[00:18:48] Um, they’ve only shown this, I think, ingest, um, Crithidia bombi, uh, which is a type of trypanosome parasite. Uh, but there the, the implications for this are, are quite [00:19:00] broad for things like viruses and, and, uh, bacteria and fungi. And so I’m looking forward to seeing what more develops out of that.

Tips for Lowering Bee Parasite and Disease Transmission

[00:19:08] Kenny Coogan: So for people who are raising bees in their backyard, what are some tips to prevent or lower disease and parasite transmission?

[00:19:21] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: So when you’re thinking about a honeybee colony, you gotta recognize there’s a pretty broad smattering of creatures trying to get in there. I mean, quite a few. And the reason for this is because honeybees have built the most amazing context to live in. If they were landlords, I would spend so much money on rent trying to get into a honeybee colony.

[00:19:43] The fact that they keep the place perfectly climate controlled, um, the, the heat is always stable. Humidity is perfectly controlled. They have around-the-clock security detail to protect everything in that colony from the ne’er-do-wells outside of the colony. They have the [00:20:00] remarkable ability, uh, to store all of this food that doesn’t spoil inside of their colony. They transition this nectar into honey and they have this incredible food source that other creatures want to get at that is full of carbohydrates. The protein, uh, from pollen. They’ve got a great setting to live in. So parasites from far and wide are gonna work really hard to get into your honeybee colonies, to get in there, to stay there and to exploit as many resources as they can.

[00:20:28] Well, if you want to avoid this happening, be well aware that the bees are by far your best resource at making sure that that colony is protected. Bees have a lot of different behaviors to try to thwart interlopers from getting into their colonies, stealing their resources, and when they are healthy and really strong, they can typically do that so well, that the vast majority of parasites cannot gain a good foothold.

[00:20:54] Uh, so a good example of this would be the, um, the wax moths. Wax moths run around the [00:21:00] colony all the time, just rambling around, uh, trying to get from one place to the next without being caught by the bees, and they try to leave eggs in all the little cracks and crevices. Well, the bees don’t like that, and so if they can reach that egg, they’ll grab it and destroy it. If they can’t reach that egg, they’ll cover the crack and crevice, uh, with propolis and that organism will be sealed inside. They won’t be able to parasitize the rest of the colony.

[00:21:23] And they do this wonderfully until the population in the colony drops to an extent where they can only focus their attention, that the small workforce that they have, has to focus their attention on the most essential elements. Um, bring in food, process that food, they don’t have time to chase the parasites around, and that’s when things like small hive beetle and wax moth can really go out of control. And so if you can keep your colony as strong as possible, you can handle issues like wax moth, small hive beetle, uh, chalkbrood, and several different, um, viral diseases that the bees can handle [00:22:00] if they have a strong enough workforce.

[00:22:01] So to do this, it’s a really good idea if you see that, um, the bees aren’t bringing in nectar and pollen very much, and you recognize that, um, there’s just not enough forage in your area, making sure that you place your apiaries, uh, you place your colonies and your apiaries themselves in areas where there’s plenty of forage, where there are plants that actually refill their nectar reserves. Not all plants do that. Some of them, when you’ve drained that nectar reserve, it’s dry. But plants, like bee trees, are wonderful for their ability to refill those nectar reserves. And if those resources are running dry for whatever reason, feed your bees. Uh, I cannot say this enough. Um, we with, um, the, the Bee Informed Partnership, which is, uh, an, uh, remarkable assemblage of research. Uh, a great body of data that they’re sitting on, so much information. One of the things that they’ve shown is that, uh, a lot of beekeepers, uh, their reason for saying that their colonies died were that their colonies were [00:23:00] weak and starving. It’s one of the top three reasons that beekeepers say that their colonies are dying.

[00:23:04] And that was really perplexing to a lot of, of, of individuals looking at this data because if your kids tell you that they’re really hungry, what do you do? You give them food. We also have the capacity to give food to our bees. And while it’s not, um, quite as high quality as the nectar that they’ll get from flowers, providing them with sugar, water, uh, even, uh, providing them with, with pollen substitute, those kinds of things are much better than those bees simply starving.

Solving for Starving Bees

[00:23:31] Kenny Coogan: So the bee population declines primarily for the lack of food. Do you know what the other two major reasons are?

[00:23:38] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: So two of the other things that beekeepers tend to cite, uh, for why their colonies are declining, um, poor overwintering conditions, um, and Varroa, uh, Varroa is kind of the top tier of what, uh, especially amongst commercial beekeepers. The commercial beekeepers are really, um, looking very heavily at, at making sure that they can turn a profit [00:24:00] on these colonies and really looking at why these colonies have, uh, failed for whatever reason. And what they tend to find as the biggest issue is that a Varroa population just got out of control.

[00:24:11] But the issues of overwintering and starvation can both be solved fairly, um, I shouldn’t say easily, but with the right kinds of efforts, um, these issues can be solved where you can feed your bees and make sure that they have what they need, uh, until the nectar flow starts up again. Uh, and you can make sure that your bees are insulated in the winter if you need to move them to another area of the country or even potentially move them into a a, an overwintering facility. Those are things that are under your power.

[00:24:45] It can be more difficult to control things like Varroa. Varroa are a tough game of whack-a-mole that we play all the time. And my lab is working, uh, right now on figuring out a way that they can be controlled much more sustainably. Um, and so I’m hoping [00:25:00] that that work will pan out, but none of these things happen quickly in, in science.

Monitoring for Varroa Mites

[00:25:05] Kenny Coogan: Are there specific biosecurity measures that a backyard beekeeper should implement to prevent or lower disease and parasite transmission?

[00:25:16] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: Oh, um, if you have, so the, the reason why I just have to take a sigh there is because we have these colonies that are between 20 and 60,000 insects flying in and out of this colony, um, being given food. And it can feel like such a daunting task to try to control what’s going on inside of that colony. There are some things that are under our control. There are a lot that aren’t. Uh, a lot of, a lot of the bees in the colony are exposed to viral and bacterial diseases in the food that they consume. A lot of their food is tainted, uh, for one reason or another, um, from other sick bees that have been in the colony. Uh, and [00:26:00] that gets into the food, and then that food is turned into the brood food that is fed to these developing bees. And unfortunately, those virus particles get into the bee’s’ body and can leave them with lifelong infections that then perpetuate within the colony.

[00:26:12] Um, there are contexts of, for larger parasites like varo mites, uh, where they are able to go from colony to colony as a result of other people’s actions. Um, beekeeping is a team sport and under circumstances where you are in close proximity to other beekeepers, uh, if their colony, their population of Varroa is not particularly well managed and their colony collapses, some of their bees are gonna wanna live out their usefulness in another colony. They will fly over, drift over to another colony, and unfortunately bring with them the sinister hitchhikers that killed the colony that they used to belong to. And those can be brought over to your colony. Um, we are finding that that’s not actually, um, the, the only or primary means of, uh, potential spread. We have talked a lot [00:27:00] about these, these Varroa bombs in, in different colonies, and it’s not always a result of them collapsing. Um, sometimes it’s just regular drift. Sometimes it’s, um, the mites being carried hither and thither. Um, but at the end of the day, um, it can feel like a very difficult game to try to manage all of these different things.

[00:27:19] If there was something specifically that I would try to focus on, it’s monitoring the colony. Monitoring for Varroa, uh, and, and making sure that when those Varroa levels start climbing towards three mites per hundred bee, that you then, uh, treat that colony to get the threshold lower, because one of the biggest stressors for, um, honeybees, by many metrics, the biggest stressor for honeybees is that parasite. And when the bees become very stressed out, um, when their fat body is destroyed by this parasite and their immune system starts to tank, then all of the other parasites and bacteria and viruses I was just talking about are able to really get a foothold [00:28:00] and take on in that colony.

[00:28:01] So if you’re going to try to manage one of these things, look very closely at your Varroa mite populations. Monitor them from month to month. And get a, a good idea for when it is that you actually need to treat, um, so that your treatment is the most effective it can be, rather than just this rolling schedule idea of “I’ll treat in the fall.”

Can You Reuse Equipment after American Foulbrood?

[00:28:19] Kenny Coogan: Now, what about equipment? I know a lot of beekeepers have, you know, 20 hives on 20 different locations. They’re traveling back and forth servicing groves. Is there a high chance that, uh, little parasites or at least disease are hanging onto the equipment?

[00:28:36] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: Quite unfortunately, yes. Um, Meghan Milbrath actually, uh, corrected me at a, a, a conference.

[00:28:42] I was talking about all of these different diseases and I got to American foulbrood and I said something like, you know, it can survive for months on equipment and it can survive. And uh, she came up to me afterwards and she was like, yeah, it can survive months. But also years. So you might wanna let [00:29:00] people know that, uh, American foulbrood can survive for years and years on equipment, even when it’s going through multiple cycles of warming up to more than a hundred degrees during the summer. And then, uh, really low subzero temperatures during the winter. It is an incredibly hardy bacterium because it has the ability to form a cyst, and that cyst can persist for quite some time. Um, no need for food. No need for any ability to regulate temperature.

[00:29:31] And so beekeepers who have had some history of dealing with American foulbrood, uh, you have to be very, very careful, uh, especially if you decided to treat it with, um, some sort of, uh, antibiotic agent like, um, tetracycline or something like that. You’re, um, unfortunately it is still very likely that cysts have survived that treatment. And those cysts can then be spread, um, between your different apiaries on your hive [00:30:00] tools, uh, on your, your, your jacket, your veil, your, like any of the things that you are associating with your colony. And so it’s very, very, very important to keep that in mind.

[00:30:10] And if you have any reason to suspect that American foulbrood has potentially, um, been a part of your operation, there is a way that you can still salvage that equipment if you really don’t want to destroy it or burn it or throw it away. You can actually expose it to high doses of radiation that will get rid of, um, uh, they will destroy the, the cysts. Um, and there are different facilities, uh, distributed around the country where you can actually, um, pay a fee but actually run your equipment through them. So, a thing to Google.

Solitary Bee Parasites and Bee Hotels

[00:30:42] Kenny Coogan: Do, now we mentioned this a little bit earlier, but do solitary bees have the same parasite problems? And my real question is, if people are making these cute little solitary bee hotels with sticks and bamboo and holes in a two by four.

[00:30:59] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: I [00:31:00] love it.

[00:31:00] Kenny Coogan: Do we need to be sanitizing, cleaning, soaking? How do we keep to bees healthy?

[00:31:08] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: Can we start like a, a nonprofit with that name? Because I love bee puns, so like Bee Sanitary. I like it. I like it. Um, I think that it’s important for us to keep in mind that we can, I wanna say this very, very delicately cuz I don’t want to sound like I’m discouraging people from doing the bee hotel thing. We can unbalance a situation when we take it into our own hands. That doesn’t mean that the bee hotels are a bad thing, but do keep in mind that sometimes those reeds are difficult to properly sanitize if they can’t be removed and replaced between seasons. And so some of the parasites that mark those reeds, um, can easily find them again, like their next generation can easily find them again the next year and the next year. And you can end up starting a, a parasitic wasp farm, which I don’t necessarily see as [00:32:00] a bad thing. Wasps need love too. They need a place to nest. But if your goal was to specifically help the bee population, then you should really consider the sorts of, um, bee hotels where you can either remove the reeds and replace them between seasons or clean them with one of those, um, I guess it’s sort of like a pipe cleaner, um, that you can stick into them and, and brush it around and, and kind of help to not, um, have especially pathogens. Um, there are several pathogen of, of these native bees, um, bacteria, fungi, viruses, that can persist in those contexts and infect, uh, different successive generations of these bees that we are trying to help.

[00:32:45] Kenny Coogan: All right, we’re gonna take a quick break in our conversation to hear a word from our sponsor, and when we return, we will learn treatment options for hives that have parasites and diseases.

Audio Articles from Grit, MOTHER EARTH NEWS, and More

[00:32:55] John Moore: At Mother Earth News and Friends, we want to deliver quality audio [00:33:00] content in a variety of ways, and that’s why we created audio articles, a new way to “tune in” to our magazines. From new issues of Grit, MOTHER EARTH NEWS, and more, we produce a selection of recorded articles to share with our listeners at Mother Earth News and Friends. There are a wide variety of topics, from pasture maintenance to creating a vertical garden in your apartment. Keep an eye out for episodes titled “Audio Article” wherever you listen to us.

[00:33:30] And now back to our conversation with Dr. Sammy Ramsey….

Do My Bees Have Parasites?

[00:33:34] Kenny Coogan: ….an assistant professor at the University of Colorado and the founder and director of the Ramsey Research Foundation.

[00:33:43] Now, prevention is always the best medicine, but hives of course can be infected with parasites. Earlier you mentioned that it’s not if you have parasites or if you have Varroa, but when. So how long do you have to be a beekeeper before [00:34:00] you get a parasite?

[00:34:03] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: It is very, very, very possible, if not entirely likely, that you only have to beekeeper for, only have to be a beekeeper for a few seconds, uh, before you become host to parasites. And the reason for that is that you’ve, If you’ve taken packages, uh, if you’re going with nucleus colonies, whatever the deal is, those bees can harbor internal parasites. Very likely, they already have Nosema or some sort of virus that they’re bringing with them, and they have that pretty much under control. It’s not a huge issue. It happens to be there with them, but they’re sort of carriers for a problem that can go out of control when they get really stressed out.

[00:34:44] Many of these, uh, organisms already have, uh, Varroa mites that are already a part of the colony. They’re already embedded in that matrix, and so you’ve likely started with a population of parasites, and so you have to be able to hit the ground running in understanding [00:35:00] management. That is what I told my dad when he became a beekeeper a few years ago. Pops, you have to join a beekeeping group. This is a team sport. They can help you with understanding, um, when the nectar flow is for our area, what’s a, a good time to treat when you should be looking at potentially your population of Varroa mites spiking. It’s a good idea to listen to other beekeepers and what’s going on in their local operations because it can be, uh, very germane to what’s happening in yours.

[00:35:26] Kenny Coogan: So I wanna go through a couple of, uh, parasites, diseases, and talk about treatment.

[00:35:32] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: Okay, lightning round.

Varroa Mite Treatment: How Many Varroa Mites is Too Many?

[00:35:34] Kenny Coogan: Yeah. So maybe we could start with Varroa. Or maybe Varroa destructor. So what, what do we know now? What, what can we use if we have more than three per hundred bees infected?

[00:35:45] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: Yes. So first of all, for those of you who don’t know that how we’ve reached that number of three per hundred bee. Um, when you’re trying to figure out what your Varroa threshold is, there are a couple of ways that you can sample. So if you get half a cup of bees, which is about 300 [00:36:00] bees. Just a rule of thumb there. Uh, get your measuring cup. Get half a cup of bees. You can grab a couple of brood frames. You want to take it from multiple brood frames if you can, to get a better representation of what’s going on inside of your colony.

[00:36:12] You then take that half a cup of bees, dump ’em into a jar, preferably with a grated lid, and then you can just put powdered sugar in there and you can shake it around. We call it a sugar shake. And after it’s coated the bees, the mites will fall off. They have have a very difficult time remaining attached to bees that are covered in particulate matter for the same reason a suction cup covered in particulate matter has a tough time sticking to your window. When those mites fall off, you can turn that jar upside down, shake the mites out, and count. And in that 300 bees, uh, you’ll then divide that number by three and you’ll know whether, uh, what your percentage is of bees in your colony. A 3% infestation, so three mites per a hundred bee, is when you should treat that colony or before you get, uh, to that number.

[00:36:59] So if [00:37:00] you’re two mites per a hundred bee, it might be worthwhile to treat that colony to keep it from getting to three. And if you’re at five mites per hundred bee, your colonies are likely suffering a level of damage that will be very difficult for them to come back from without a lot of input from you. So you want to keep them from getting up to that 5% infestation level.

[00:37:18] Now, how do you do that? Well, there are treatment options that we have that are both chemical and nonchemical. I know some of you out there are already, like, I don’t wanna put anything into my colonies I wouldn’t put into my own body. I understand. I get that. I am with you on it. Where, uh, where that is possible, I try to do that myself.

[00:37:34] But there are circumstances where these Varroa situations can get out of control, and we have to be very well aware that this is not a natural set of circumstances that we’ve put them in. We’ve put these bees in an unnatural context, and so we have to, uh, have consistent input into that context to make sure that they are as healthy and happy as they can be.

[00:37:55] So there are options like formic acid, which is one of the treatments that [00:38:00] has very little, uh, resistance that’s been shown thus far. Uh, it is an organic acid. Um, it is naturally occurring inside of, of the group of organisms that, um, bees belong to called the Hymenoptera. Um, insects like ants produce this as defensive chemical, so it is a natural option. Um, it’s also naturally found in honey already, and so it won’t taint the honey and you can actually, uh, use this as a treatment when the honey supers are still. When the honey supers are off, rotate with a different chemical because using the same thing over and over and over drives resistance. So don’t just use, uh, amitraz, don’t just use formic acid. Um, but you can rotate between those options and it can help tremendously in making sure that the population of mites going into the winter isn’t huge. The population of mites when you’re, uh, first getting started in the summer, um, is, is low so that the colony can really flourish.

[00:38:54] There are other options like oxalic acid, um, that is also an effective treatment [00:39:00] measure. Uh, there’s research, uh, out of Florida and Georgia now working with better understanding the exact amounts of formic acid that are best for, um, maximally impacting the population of parasites and minimally impacting the population of bees. While that information is still being worked out, I tend to rely more heavily on formic acid than oxalic acid, but, uh, to each his own.

[00:39:23] And, um, those options, um, can also be found in the Honeybee Health Coalition’s tools for Varroa management guide. I can’t go through all the options right now. But that guide is wonderful for helping to, uh, for you to know, uh, when you can use which treatments, uh, whether the honey supers should be on or off, um, what temperature it should be to, to use particular treatments. It is a foolproof guide to make sure that you can, uh, if you’re going to use chemicals in your colony, you can protect your bees from being, uh, harmed by them.

[00:39:55] Uh, there are non-treatment options. The reason why non-treatment options tend [00:40:00] not to be as popular as treatment options is because they require more of your time. A lot more of your time. Um, one that I’ve found to be particularly effective is, uh, doing, uh, drone culling, putting a drone frame into the colony and exploiting the fact that Varroa mites are very interested in the males in the colony because it takes them two extra days to develop. So the mites get two more days, uh, to have offspring and usually are able to double their reproductive rate in that process. So the mites, it’s basically like a vacuum cleaner. It’s pulling the mites out of other areas of your colony into that frame.

[00:40:34] Now, that can be a real problem if your mites are able to have twice as many babies. So what you wanna do is after they’ve been capped, take that frame out, freeze it. And Kenny, you’ve got chickens, right?

[00:40:45] Kenny Coogan: Yes, I do.

[00:40:45] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: So you can freeze it. And then what do you do with all of that, that protein inside of that drone comb? Well, it doesn’t have to go to waste. Chickens love this stuff. They go crazy over it. So give it to your chickens afterwards. It doesn’t have to go to waste. Um, the [00:41:00] downside to that is that you’ve removed a lot of protein from the colony that the bees could have used, uh, in other ways.

[00:41:05] But the upside is that no chemicals were, um, used in this process, um, that are adding to our, our chemical treadmill system or adding to our, our, our footprint in this process. And, uh, so you kind of have to weigh all of that out and whether you have time to do all of that and whether you can stay on that schedule.

[00:41:22] But this is the lightning round. I took a long time to answer that question, but I’ll be quicker with the others. What else we got?

Why is American Foulbrood Dangerous to Bees?

[00:41:26] Kenny Coogan: So, next, Varroa destructor, can you come up with the second to worst parasite or disease that beekeepers will likely encounter?

[00:41:36] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: Yeah, so beekeepers, uh, uh, it, it is kind of this dreaded thing that beekeepers will one day contact American foulbrood. Because it’s the only disease for which we say, um, the best thing you can do is burn your colonies, kill the bees, burn all the equipment, and it just feels so draconian to do something like that. But it has been really important for protecting the industry of beekeeping and protecting the [00:42:00] community of beekeepers, because individuals who don’t do something about the American foulbrood population in their colonies, uh, are necessarily going to end up spreading that to other populations of honeybees. And it is fatal, um, for these colonies. It just basically turns the colony into a rotting mass of goo. It smells terrible. And by the time you begin to smell it, potential, uh, antibiotics aren’t really going to be able to do much about it. There are already spores and or cysts that have already formed there that are going to be very, very, very, very, very difficult, um, to manage, uh, other than, uh, using, um, fire or radiation.

[00:42:41] And so if you do find that you have a very, very, very, very, very early, um, American foulbrood infestation in your colony, you can talk to your local vet about whether antibiotics are right for you. They may prescribe antibiotics, um, and [00:43:00] maybe you’ll be able to get that under control. But the only sure fire way, and I would like to highlight the word fire there, is fire, unfortunately.

How to Get Rid of Small Hive Beetles

[00:43:10] Kenny Coogan: I will do one more. Is there a third, uh, worst case scenario?

[00:43:14] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: Oh my gosh. These small hive beetles are really getting on people’s nerves. My dad had a bunch in his colonies. I have tended to think of them as a second tier parasite because colonies can manage them when they are strong enough.

[00:43:28] But even a strong colony can be taken down by Varroa or um, American foulbrood. American foulbrood, which there is, uh, a vaccine that’s been developed for it, by the way. So we may not have that be as huge a problem as it’s been in the past. There’s no vaccine for small hive beetles and they can really go out of control and they foul the honey. My dad was so upset that he had like this gross, gooey mass of what once was, uh, potential honey and revenue that no longer could be.

[00:43:57] So there are traps, um, [00:44:00] for these beetles. Uh, there’s also the potential for, um, I’ve heard Swiffer pads. I haven’t seen any data on this, but I’ve heard that you can put Swiffer pads in your colony and that the beetles will get tangled up in these pads and then you can take them out.

[00:44:13] Um, but at the end of the day, the best thing that you can do is keep your colony as strong as possible. If a colony is beginning to fail and has attracted a bunch of beetles, you’ve gotta figure out what you’re going to do about that, because those beetles can then spread to the colonies next to them, and they overwinter in the soil. So underneath that colony, you’ve likely got an entire population of beetles that will return the next year.

Busting Backyard Beekeeping Myths

[00:44:36] Kenny Coogan: Mother Earth News listeners and readers are generally concerned about the use of “chemicals.” So thank you for mentioning the natural chemicals that are found in, uh, ants and other organisms. Is there any home remedies that absolutely do not work?

[00:44:55] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: Yes.

[00:44:55] Kenny Coogan: That cause, that cause more harm than good, you know, because the beekeepers thinking, oh, I’m, [00:45:00] I’m servicing the hive. But in reality, it’s all false.

[00:45:04] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: Exactly. Oh, there are so many. One of my favorite things about beekeepers and also one of the things that can cause the downfall of a great operation is that beekeepers are so creative and industrious.

[00:45:16] As a group, we are always tinkering with the systems that we are working with and finding new ways to make sure that our colonies can thrive. And unfortunately that means we try odd things, um, that aren’t always that helpful. Um, there, I guess in terms of home remedies, uh, mineral oils become very, very popular in certain areas of the country, potentially using mineral oil in the colonies, uh, to deal with a whole range of different issue.

[00:45:45] But research on the subject thus far has not born out that mineral oil has any dramatic impact on, uh, Nocema, on viruses, or on Varroa mites. Uh, and I really think it’s time that we put this one to rest and stop [00:46:00] encouraging people just because it is, uh, minimally toxic to the bees. Um, minimally toxic to the bees isn’t the only threshold.

[00:46:07] Tons of things are minimally toxic to the bees. Water is minimally toxic to the bees. You also want it to be maximally toxic to the parasites or as toxic as it can be for them, and as minimally toxic as it can be for the bees themselves. Um, some tinkering that I’ve seen go, go wrong in the past is that beekeepers have even taken those bedbug foggers that you can get at your local hardware stores and, and, and things, and replaced the canister in them that normally sprays a Permethrin, pyrethroids, and things, uh, into the air. They’ve taken that they’ve, um, usually oxalic acid in it and then popped it back inside of that fogger, which is not a label application and you should not do that. Um, but we do know that oxalic is an effective chemical. This is not the way that it’s meant to be used. Uh, unfortunately because the viscosity is so different from the chemical that’s already there and because these [00:47:00] sprayers have the capacity to spark when the viscosity is, uh, too high, I’ve seen those turn into flame throwers and literally shoot a stream of fire into the colony. And I will promise you this. It is actually effective at getting rid of the Varroa mites, but um, also very effective at getting rid of the bees. So I would very strongly advise against that particular creative solution because of how dangerous it could be.

[00:47:23] I also know of beekeepers that are convinced that crystals are an effective remedy. If crystals are placed in close proximity to the colony, placed on top of the colony, that they can, in some ways reroute certain forms of energy. Um, and once again, there is absolutely no evidence for that. Um, and there’s no evidence that using comb that has smaller cells, small cell size, uh, is an effective measure at getting rid of, of brood parasites. Um, that’s also been shown to have no scientific merit.

[00:47:55] So these are the things, guys. I understand why we’re trying them, but [00:48:00] the data say, uh, that it’s not doing us any good.

Are Miticides Bad for the Environment

[00:48:03] Kenny Coogan: So we’re concerned about interdependence and ecological systems. Uh, a few minutes ago, when you’re talking about the pesticides or treatments, are those, um, like miticides, do they only affect the mites and the ticks, or are they affecting other invertebrates, insects in the ecosystem?

[00:48:25] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: In honeybee colonies, because of the ways that, um, the, the colony itself is structured. So you have a cavity nesting bee and the wax has a tendency to sequester and absorb certain kinds of chemicals as well. Chemicals that we put into honeybee colonies tend, tend, let me underline that, uh, tend to stay in those colonies. So typically it’s not the case that the miticides that we use in the colonies, um, become a big ecological issue for creatures outside of the colony. Typically. There are things that can happen, uh, where a colony is broken into by, uh, certain kinds of, [00:49:00] of vertebrates that can then distribute some of those, uh, those, those issues more broadly. But yeah, under most circumstances, it’s, it’s not typically a big deal outside of the colony.

[00:49:11] When things are not applied properly or when beekeepers are mixing big vats of chemicals and they’re mixing them in buckets that leak in things, those chemicals can get into the environment and they’re a huge issue when they get into the ground. There are all kinds of populations of mites that keep your soil healthy. Uh, soil is a living thing. It is just this huge bundle of symbioses and all kinds of organisms, microbes large and small. And when those kinds of chemicals get in there, they imbalance the system and can cause a real problem.

[00:49:44] Um, and while we’re talking about, um, some of the chemicals that get into the colony, when certain kinds of agrochemicals get into the colony through, um, seed treatments and then are that are then expressed in the pollen and the nectar, and then the bees bring that back to the colony, they [00:50:00] concentrate those chemicals by evaporating the water from the nectar, and some of those chemicals can have an impact on their gut microflora, which are really important for those bees remaining healthy.

[00:50:09] And so we do know that chemicals have a fairly broad reach, but the ones that we are actually putting into the colonies as miticides tend not to have the broadest reach.

Are the Honeybees Disappearing?

[00:50:19] Kenny Coogan: All right, Dr. Sammy. Last, uh, question or statement. Do you, what’s your feeling about the general health of honeybees on a global level right now? I’m assuming you’re optimistic, but should, should we be —

[00:50:37] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: I got an optimistic face, you know?

[00:50:40] Kenny Coogan: Should we be only buying, uh, food that’s, that’s not, that doesn’t need bees to be pollinated? Are we in a apocalyptic mode?

[00:50:49] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: We are not in an apocalyptic mode. We certainly have not reached a point where people, uh, should be thinking that they only need to buy crops that are wind pollinated.

[00:50:58] But I can tell you [00:51:00] that we are still in a set of losses, uh, average losses for our colonies that are unsustainably high. Uh, every year we lose between a third and half of our honeybee population, and then we recoup those losses, and this is based on data from the, once again, the Bee Informed Partnership. Um, we recoup those losses by then splitting the colonies that are left.

[00:51:26] And so you might already be aware there’s only so much you can split the same colonies. So when we reach a point where that 50% number is the average amount, right now we’re between, uh, a third and and half. But when we are above half consistently each year, we’ve officially reached an unsustainable level of losses where, um, they’re going to start, our population will likely start to trend downward.

[00:51:51] Um, right now we are keeping things steady by simply splitting them, but we also have to consider that there are, um, more popular, er, more [00:52:00] species of honeybees than just Apis mellifora. And so the work that I conduct through the Ramsey Research Foundation and now the University of Colorado Boulder in partnership with the USDA and Project Apis m., uh, I’ve been working a lot, um, in Asia. And Southeast Asia is the region of the world where every honeybee species that exists lives there. So that’s the region of the world where if you wanna study parasites, disease, pathogens, and just in general how bees remain healthy in the face of all these issues, that’s the region of the world where you have to go.

[00:52:32] Well, my goal now, especially now that we have Nat Geo as a partner, which has been huge, is for me to travel to every location, uh, in Asia that has a unique species of honeybee, and I’m gonna see all nine to 11-ish of these species. There’s a little dispute about, uh, Apis breviligula and Apis indica, whether they should be their own species, but getting to see all of these different species, getting to collect, um, [00:53:00] samples from them and look at their virus populations, their pathogens, will give us a much better idea than we have had previously on how the global population of honeybees is doing.

[00:53:10] And my next trip is to Nepal, um, where in a few months I’m going to be on the side of a cliff, uh, collecting honey from, uh, these Apis…. Oh my goodness. Did I just blank on the name? We got a…. laboriosa! Apis laboriosa, um, which makes hallucinogenic honey. Uh, we’re not interested so much in the honey. I’m very interested in their population of parasitic mites. The Tropilaelaps mites. But um, that kind of work is work that I’m so excited to get to do, and I know that I’m very privileged to get to exist in these spaces.

[00:53:42] Kenny Coogan: We wish you a lot of luck, and thank you so much, Dr. Sammy, for speaking with us. Our conversation on preventing and treating bee parasites has been very insightful.

[00:53:52] Dr. Sammy Ramsey: Thank you so much. It’s a delight to get to talk with you.

[00:53:55] Kenny Coogan: And we thank you, the listener, for joining our podcast and encourage you to share it with [00:54:00] your friends, colleagues, and family.

[00:54:02] To listen to more podcasts and to learn more, visit our website, www.MotherEarthNews.com. You can also follow our social media platforms from that link.

[00:54:12] And remember, no matter how brown your thumb is, you can always cultivate kindness.

Cultivate Kindness with More Mother Earth News and Friends

[00:54:20] John Moore: You’ve just listened to our episode about parasites in your beehive with Dr. Sammy Ramsey. You can reach us at Letters@MotherEarthNews.com with any comments or suggestions.

[00:54:33] Our podcast production team includes Carla Tilghman, Jessica Mitchell, John Moore, and Kenny Coogan. Music for this episode is “Travel Light” by Jason Shaw. This Mother Earth News and Friends podcast is a production of Ogden Publications. Learn more about us at www.MotherEarthNews.com.

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Meet Dr. Sammy Ramsey

Dr. Sammy Ramsey is “your friendly neighborhood entomologist,” an assistant professor at the University of Colorado, and the founder and director of the Ramsey Research Foundation. His extensive research on insects demonstrates their need and their value. Dr. Sammy’s groundbreaking research has garnered international praise and recognition for its significant contributions. Always looking to forward scientific progress, diversity, and innovation, his career is distinguished by excellence and perseverance.

Additional Resources

Learn more about Dr. Sammy Ramsey on his website.

Our Podcast Team:

Carla Tilghman, Jessica Mitchell, John Moore, and Kenny Coogan
Music: “Travel Light” by Jason Shaw

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