Hello Deborah I am a beekeeper in the UK who is a member of a research group that have been studying some of the questions that you have asked. Of course my viewpoint is from the UK, but most will be relevant to the US. > I am a UW Madison graduate student developing a story about bedding down > varroa decimated beehives for the winter, progress in coping with the > infestation and prognostications for the year to come. > How serious is the threat of mite infestation to honeybees and honey > production in the United States? Serious but maybe not as serious as some would suggest. European countries have suffered with Varroa for decades! So their experience is the best guide to what will happen in the US. Probably - - Initial panic amongst beekeepers - The development of real experiences of infestation and the knowledge of the infestation and how to treat it. - Scare stories in the press!! - The loss of many feral colonies and high colony loss by many beekeepers - 'Let alone' beekeepers no longer have bees to keep - Stories appear about lack of pollination in vulnerable crops - Beekeepers begin to learn how to live with Varroa - Reduced losses due to Varroa. > How would you describe the econonomic impact of the infestation in this > country? I don't know about the US, which relies more on the use of beekeepers moving bees for pollination than most parts of Europe. Beekeepers will be able to provide these colonies (after initial losses), but with the loss of feral bees this will be more important. I would expect the cost of pollination to rise and therby slightly increase the cost of those foodstuffs. Eventually (not for many decades) Varroa tolerant bees. > What do the mites do that kills bees? What more familiar process might it > be compared to? This is still poorly understood, Varroa feed on larval haemolymph and it has been thought that it is this does the damage. But new work is showing that in fact bees can tolerate very high infestations and what kills bees are the viruses that are already present within the bee population (or maybe transmitted by Varroa). Varroa inject proteins when they feed (anti-coagulants etc.) it is now thought that this causes the viral level of bees to rise greatly, overcoming the bees resistance to disease. It seems to bre the experience of areas that become infested with Varroa that after subsequent high losses the losses decrease rapidly, this is probably due to the fact that the disease resistant bees remain and the less resistant ones have been eradicated. > I would also appreciate some framework information: You'll have to be more explicit! I can point you in the direction of a book about Varroa if you are interested I can also tell you how to search the Bee-l Listserv for all messages containing the word 'Varroa' if you're feeling really keen! > How many bees inhabit how many humanmade hives in the US? How does that > compare to the past 1-5 years? 5-10 years? Don't know > For the same intervals, how much honey have they produced comparatively? Somebody posted information on this recently, you may have to ask the list again with that specific question > For the same intervals, how many acres or sq. miles do they pollinate > comparatively? Don't know > What crops do bees pollinate? Do any other species contribute to this > pollination? (butterflies, hummingbirds, etc.) If so, in what proportion? > If not, what alternatives, if any exist? This is a US specific question to which an answer could easily be found I'm sure. Any list would include - Beans Blueberries Apples/Pears Citrus Plum family Cherries Oil Seed Rape (you have another name for this in the US -= but I know its a commonly used cooking oil) and many many other crops/plants/trees > I have heard that 60% to 80% of honeybees were lost last winter, compared > to normal annual loss of 5-6%. Is this accurate? I suspect this may be an exaggeration, but I don't know US figures, although SOME areas may have had these losses. Best wishes Joe Hemmens