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B-MAIL
 
A monthly newsletter on issues and events in the bee world, provided by
IBRA, the world information service for bee science and beekeeping.
 
From Dr Pamela Munn, Editor Bee World
 
**August/1995**
 
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Magic bullets
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I came across an interesting paper this month amongst a pile of scanning
that materialized on my desk, which prompted me to find out more.
 
It appears that bees are proving to be effective carriers of biocontrol agents.
Studies are being carried out to discover how honey bees can be used to
spread beneficial bacteria and viruses to crops and orchards, where they
come into contact with pest organisms. The pests are not entirely killed off,
but reduced to such a level that is not economically damaging. The
standard method of controlling pests is of course spraying, resulting in large
quantities of pesticides being spread into the environment. Bees are able to
target the crops very specifically avoiding this problem.
 
Examples of this type of bio control include fire blight, a serious pest of
orchard fruits such as apple and pear. It is caused by Erwinia amylovora.
Johnson et al*. have been testing the ability of honey bees to disperse the
bacteria Pseudomonas fluorescens, which is antagonistic to E. amylovora,
to apple and pear blossoms. They attached pollen inserts to each hive,
forcing the bees to walk through a freeze-dried preparation of the bacteria
as they left the hive. Another group* working on fire blight control used P.
fluorescens and E. herbicola in their study. They found that 92% of the apple
flowers in a 2.6-ha orchard were inoculated with E. herbicola. Both studies
concluded that honey bees are efficient vectors of fire blight pathogens.
 
Peng et al*. have looked at controlling the strawberry pest, Botrytis cinerea.
They have developed a dispenser to fit in the hive, which contaminates bees
with either corn meal or a mixture of corn meal and talc, inoculated with
Gliocladium roseum. They found that the amount of G. roseum on flowers
treated using honey bees was higher and more stable than sprayed plants,
and effectively suppressed B. cinerea on both flowers and fruit.
 
More recently, workers in Georgia, USA*, have reported work on using
honey bees to spread the Heliothis nuclear polyhedrosis virus (HNPV) into
fields of clover to control Lepidopteran larvae, such as Helicoverpa zea and
Heliothis virescens.
 
Bees are already being used commercially to pollinate crops and it seems a
logical step forward if they can also be used to control pests. So far, work
has concentrated on honey bees, but many economically valuable crops
are grown in greenhouses, where honey bees are not useful, or are more
effectively pollinated by other bees, such as bumble bees. It would be an
interesting development if these bees proved as effective biocontrol vectors.
 
Work is still in the early stages of development, and the extent to which it
proves useful will depend greatly on an improved understanding of the
interrelationships between the bees and the plants they forage on, and their
target pests.
 
Further reading:
 
1. GROSS, H; HAMM, J J; CARPENTER, J E (1994) Design and applicaiton
of a hive mounted device that uses honey bees (Hym: Apidea) to
disseminate Heliothis nuclear polyhedrosis viruses. Environmental
Entomology 23(2): 492-501.
 
2. JOHNSON, K B; STOCKWELL, V O; BURGETT, D M; SUGAR, D;
LOPER, J E (1993) dispersal of erwinia amylovora and pseudomonas
fluorescens by honey bees from hives to apple and pear blossoms.
Phytopathology 83(50: 478-484.
 
3. PENG, G; SUTTON, J C; KEVAN, P G (1992) Effectiveness of honey
bees for applying the biocontrol agent Gliocladium roseum to strawberry
flowers to suppress Botrytis cinerea. Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology
14(2): 117-129.
 
4. THOMSON, S V; HANSEN, D R; FLINT, K M; VANDENBERG, J D (1992)
Dissemination of bacteria antagonistic to Erwinia amylovora by honey bees.
Plant Disease 76(10): 1052-1056.
 
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Meetings coming up
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Black Bee Symposium 1995
8-10 September 1995, in Norway
 
This conference will focus on conserving the European black bee.
Registration details are available from the organizers:
 
Flekkefjord Landsbrukskontoret
Kirkegata 52
N-4400 Flekkefjord
Norway
Fax: (+47) 38 32 44 56
 
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American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists 28th Annual meeting
10-14 October 1995, Ottawa, Canada
 
Details are available from:
 
SA Jarzen
AASP 28
Canadian Museum of Nature
PO Box 3443, Station D
Ottawa K1P 6P4
Canada
E.mail: [log in to unmask]
 
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International Conference on bee products: properties, applications and
apitherapy
26-30 March 1996, Tel Aviv, Israel
 
Contact:
 
Dan Knassim Ltd
PO Box 57005
Tel Aviv 61570
Israel
Fax: 972 3 6133341
 
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7th International Symposium on Pollination: from theory to practice
23-28 June 1996, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
 
The International Commission for Plant-Bee Relationships is holding its 7th
international symposium at the University of Lethbridge. The second circular
will be available in October from:
 
Ken Richards
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Lethbridge Research Centre
Lethbridge
Alberta T1J 4B1
Canada
E.mail: [log in to unmask]
 
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Look out in the next B.mail for more information on IBRA's 6th International
Conference on Tropical Bees; management and diversity.
 
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Bee Scientists honoured
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The achievements of two well known bee scientists have been recognized
in the honour lists of their respective countries.
 
Professor John Free, UK, was honoured in the Queen's Birthday Honours
List with the award of Commander of St Michael and St George for services
to beekeeping worldwide. Professor Free has a long and distinguished
career in both pure and applied research on honey bees.
 
Dr Peter Molan of the University of Waikato, New Zealand, has been
awarded an MBE in that country's June honour's list for services to the
honey industry. For many years he has worked on the antibiotic properties
of honey and wrote an extensive review on this subject for Bee World in
1992. (Available as a reprint from IBRA, price #4.00 plus postage and
packing).
 
 
 
 
 
Return address:
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