>Lithium chloride effectively kills the honey bee parasite Varroa destructor by a systemic mode of action.


The basic premise of this study is that bees vector the lithium chloride via mites feeding on haemolymph. But if you look at the work of Samual Ramsey out of the University of Maryland who introduced his breakthrough research at EAS a few years back and is now on the talking circuit credited with having uncovered 50 years of misconception about what mites feed on, one begins to wonder if the authors of this study got the mode of action right. Also, I didn't read in the study where the levels of lithium were measured in the haemolymph before, during, or after feeding the bees. It occurs to me that there may be other implications to consider if the fat bodies are the source of lithium toxic enough to kill mites. 



>Samuel Ramsey, PhD student studying in Dr. Dennis vanEngelsdorp’s lab at the University of Maryland, College Park. 


>Ramsey’s research establishes that the mites are primarily feeding on the honey bee’s fat body tissue—an organ in insects that serves a similar role to the human liver. Since many of the existing systemic pesticides designed to combat the mite were formulated assuming the mites fed on the hemolymph, this discovery explains why these never succeeded as a control measure. This frequent exposure may also contribute to future pesticide resistance as well since the mites would not ingest enough pesticide to kill them. This work also explains why honey bees suffer so many negative consequences from a parasite we believed was only consuming a small amount of their blood. 

Bill Hesbach
Northeast USA

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