>The beekeeper asked me if transfer of nosema ceranae

> spores could come from a water source. I asked many researchers but none
> knew the answer. Jerry or Randy?
>

Sure!  They can come from anywhere that bees defecate.  You can easily check
by scraping bee poop off your windshield.

However, I doubt that spore counts are going to rise substantially due to
transmission via flowers.

Forager bees eat little pollen, and if they do, it shoots quickly through
their guts.  So any correlation of rising spore counts and pollen
availability likely has to do with the nurse bees feeding on incoming
pollen, which could be contaminated by infected foragers.

Martin-Hernandez reported on viable spores being in corbicular pollen loads,
but I haven't seen any follow up to that report.

Randy Oliver

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