Dr. Jeff Pettis, Bee Research Lab, Beltsville, Maryland. Spoke at Henderson Co Bee Club meeting Tuesday evening as part of Pollinator Week programs in Asheville. Notes (as well as typos and potential errors) by Blue Ridge Bee. Shared for anyone who may be interested in reading. 


(Bio from Wikipedia: Jeffery Stuart Pettis is an American born biologist and entomologist known for his extensive research on honeybee behavior. He is currently the research leader at the United States Department of Agriculture's Beltsville Bee Laboratory (BBL). His research has led to significant breakthroughs in understanding and managing CCD, a primary cause of North American bee population decline. He is also known for discovering with Dennis van Engelsdorp of Pennsylvania State University the ability of bees to detect pesticides and harmful fungi in collected pollen and subsequently quarantine the harmful substances from the rest of the hive.[8] His research has also studied the synergistic effects of Imidacloprid on bees, an insecticide derived from nicotine.)

Notes from talk:

His lab in Beltsville focuses on pests and diseases. Viruses, nosema, mites, foulbrood. Foulbrood used to be the worst thing, he says he 'wished he could go back to the days.' Dr Evans in the lab works on bee genome. Dr Judy Chen, virologist and nosema work….especially varroa/virus interactions. Dr. Corona working on queen health and bee nutrition. They have a product almost ready to field test, which adds nutrition to megabee, etc. Dr Cook, toxicologist and insect physiologist…how to worker bees react to chem exposure, esp farm chemicals. Dr. Pettis - field work with commercial beeks. Bart Smith: disease diagnostic service. He is entomologist. Diagnostic center is underutilized. Beeks can send in dead bees, comb and they will analyze and try to diagnose. 


Pettis is not a proponent of treating nosema with fumagillin. New nosema is not predictable and does not respond always and does not need to always be treated or respond to treatment. In the research yards at the lab, they manage mites with formic acid and some thyhmol products. They do not treat with fumagillin. Does not use hard chems. (See info on lowered queen performance below.)


US colony losses. Since '07 averaging 30% winter loss. Some operations in commercial lose 50% over summer. They are looking at summer losses. Winter still close to 30%. 


1940s (Commerical) 5.5-6 million colonies in US. Now 2.5 million colonies. Same land mass in Europe supports 16 million colonies. On national scale, just don't have a lot of bees. Need 1.5 million just for almonds alone. (This is commercial scale, to pollinate.) Bees are being shipped even from Northeast for CA almonds. Used to be just west of Mississippi bees that were sent to almonds. 


What is going on in bee health (commercial): Average hive goes to 3-5 pollination contracts. Diseases stress bees, then they are put on mono crop that doesn't provide much nutrition, like watermelon, exposed to a little pesticide/fungacide and that has large results. Commericial bees do better: skipping a pollination contract or two, resting in wild areas, and building up bees with protein and nutrition before doing more pollination contracts. Focus is interactions between stressors. 


Humans have long association with bees. In hunter-gatherer time, it must have been the crazy jane or john who climbed up the cliff to angry bees…the simple minded crazy person in the clan who like bees… Those genes have come through to us. :-)


Colony performance and failing queens. Failing queens is more widespread. 


They do not have the answers. What is to blame? Queen production: poor mating weather? enough drones? nutrition during cell building? stock selection? Once in hive: disease level in hive (transmitted to queen), pesticide levels in hive, poor supercedures, transportation. All are factors. 


A lot of queens turning into drone layers - runs out of sperm. They test for percentage of living sperm. He hasn't seen a 4 year old queen (which someone in audience had) in 10 years. 2 years seems great these days. Drone layers were often well mated, but dead sperm. They are sampling failing queens from commercial hives. Typical sperm survival was 55% (which is terrible). ( from East coast commercial hives, that beeks rated in poor health). West coast sample - 40-70% sperm survival. Healthy queens sampled: 92% live sperm. Healthy queens 90% live sperm typical. Above 80% is normal. Failing hives: typically 40-50%. Many factors affect amount of living sperm. 


Dead sperm in queens is causing poor colony performance. What is causing dying sperm? Many factors/potential causes. 


We know there is a lot of queen turnover. Poor brood patterns in queens with low living sperm percentage. Poor colony performance/survival. 


Surveyed 6 different queen breeders from diff areas of country. Two shipping rates: overnight and usps. Recording thermometer in boxes. Aug queens: 65% sperm living, Sept queens closer to 80% living sperm. In a different region: opposite results. Overall, not what you want to see re: low numbers. Best set they got: nearly all over 85%, some well above 90%. Worst set: awful, averaged 60. Shipping temps could be to blame: In one shipment that took 3.5 days in transit temp spikes from 101-104. Low temps, not so bad. In another shipment that took 2.5 days, low 40's in July (!) (air shipment). One dip down to 8 degrees. Holding queen 1 hour at 40 degrees can kill 50% of sperm in lab. So shipping temp is having an effect. Also, could security X-rays affecting queens? Not known. Shipping temps could be involved in poor queens. Ag chem exposures will also kill sperm. 


Mite chems can impact queen/sperm count. Amitraz/Apivar (newest mite control on market - slow release) : killed 50% of sperm in Queens in application tests in the lab. May be worse effect combined with other chems. This is what he is working on. All three doses of Amitraz/Apivar caused same effect in killing sperm - low dose to super high dose all caused 50% reduction in living sperm in Queen.


Need more evidence to determine if queen failures are resulting from factors in the hives, queen rearing or drones (ag chem/mite chem exposures of drones can also lower sperm viability). 


Application of Amitraz/Apivar produced 50% sperm death in the lab, regardless of dose. Likely to be similar with other mite chems. 

(Amitraz/Apivar was tested. Not to be confused with ApiLife Var thymol product)
______ Q & A Session _______

Queen surveys from the field: queens came from same apiary, but not clear whether queens came from. Queens made on site (local) and not shipped are almost always better in Pettis's experience. (Commercial beek in audience said he did not see a diff in purchased/shipped queens and ones he raised in his yards.) Pettis said in his experience 28-30 days in mating nuc, makes better queens. Never-shipped queens are usually better queens (more long lived, more production) he says. Nosema rarely affects queens, but if it does, she is gone in 3-4 weeks. Black queen cell virus does affect queen. Disease level of the colony more directly related to overall colony health. 


GMOs and honey bee health. At present, he is more concerned with pesticides than GMOs. Studies with corn pollen (gmo and non) show no difference in bee health in the lab. He is much more concerned about pesticides than GMOs. GMO ag fields, on the other hand, create another problem. 'sterile field' effect. Only crop -- no weeds, flowers etc. Better buffers/ pollinator habitats needed. Forage summit to be held in the fall - trying to diversify the ag land environment. Ag environment not only one to blame: residential and commercial development of land. In CA, Ag use of neo-nics is only 1/3of total. Other 2/3 used is by consumers and golf courses. 


Research in CA has shown if you increase buffer/diversity (using part of field for this) yield will more than offset the crop not grown in that space. Many things in traditional high-input are not going to work in future, he says. In commodity crops, bigger may work better. Veggies/fruit, may be better in smaller settings. 


How is ag industry responding re: bees and pesticides. They are listening and are concerned (b/c public and beeks are concerned). But EPA and chem companies are not making fast moves. Public opinion matters more than beeks (much bigger audience). He said he knows chem companies are listening, but response is uncertain. In play. In response to a question from audience re: banning neo-nics for a time period, Pettis expressed concern that simply doing that (as Europe has done) would 'take the pressure off' the EPA to fully assess effect of many ag chems on pollinators. Worse, if neo-nics alone are banned, ag may resort to chems 'that are likely worse' he said. He expressed that the chem/bee issue is larger than neo-nics alone. 


Wild bees and other pollinators: they are being impacted by same factors/chems as honeybees. 1 type of honeybee in US; 35K native pollinators. Many show drastic declines.


Europe, other areas that have banned neonics -- grand experiment going on and he says. Data not in re: has the ban had impact. What is known in US: when commercial bees are near ag crops, don't do as well as wild environments. Period. Grand experiment going on in Europe, he hopes they are keeping good data. Good comparison can be attained on canola fields. Neonics can be very persistent in soil when not exposed to light, can last multiple years. Can get accumulation. Dandelions, for example (among others), can pull it up from soil and expose pollinators .


Q: What is most common residual chem found in hives they examine? A: Coumaphospate, Fulnavilate (?) (=Checkmite and apistan . most common by quantity. In the wax. ) 

When they trapped incoming pollen on bees on 7 diff ag crops -- the only neonics were from apples. The incoming pollen averaged containing 6 ag pesticides/fungicides. Multpiple exposures. Combintions appear more toxic than individual pesticides. There are many factors. Nutrition is a strong effect too. More study required on all. 


They do see glyphosate/roundup residue in hives. Unknown effect on bees. He said there is more research concern re: human effects of roundup/glyphosphate exposure than to bees. 


Early queens - is there usually lower volume of sperms. Less than 7 drones represented in spermatheca, related to lower performance and longevity. 


Q: Are Neonics affecting endocrine system and affecting immune suppression and performance of queen? A: Detox genes are turned on in some cases (that is good thing, bee immune system attempting to detox) but they are seeing immune suppression in queens in exposures. Not killing queen directly but affecting performance. 


Years ago, 1.5-2 years was common longevity for queens. He sees more turnover than that now. Early queens always iffy due to weather, etc. Late spring/early summer: best. Later queens may be poor due to decreased drones. 


Using (green) Drone frames: he likes them for mite control. (Drones must be killed before emerging in this technique.) If doing queen production - use drone frames (allowing to emerge) for increased drone availabillties. He recommended using for both. 


Q: Amount of pesticide residue in wax foundations? Yes residues are there, but levels are very low. He said he would not be worried due to low amount. Possible to have foundation made from your own wax if you are worried.


Q: Is there evidence of increased Africanized genes in this area (Western North Carolina) due to imported queens from the South. A: unknown. Weed out hot hives. He encourages buying local stock. You will get better performance: more adapted, less africanization, does not have to be shipped. 


Lab is seeing more EFB and Idiopathic Brood Disease Syndrome? (aka 'Snot brood' as they casually call it …white dying larva) EFB is increasing in certain areas. Unknown causes. Also in UK and Switerzerland -- seeing strains that are more virulent EFB. Lab is seeing it in IL and deep south. IBDS: have seen it all over country. Don't know what it is. Could be viral, bacterial. Not associated with high varroa. (Unlike parasitic syndrome) Bees on blueberries tend to get more EFB. More is popping up this area. 


Q: EMF (cell signal, radiation ) affecting bees? A: EMF not compelling enough to study. He hasn't seen effect evidence. Radiation such as Japan accident: not really being tested in U.S. He hopes they are testing effects in Japan. 

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