Bee Careful, Or Practice Safe Pollination

Eleven species of wild pollinators in the United States have turned up carrying some of the viruses known to menace domestic honeybees.  My God, could they be passing the virus through pollen?  And worse, should the public be alarmed by the indiscriminate pollenating lifestyle of these bees?

Sure, it's a quiet news week after Christmas, but c'mon, it is a little interesting to hear people talk about "native pollinators" or honeybee viruses potentially transmitted via flower pollen? Now, the hope that viral diseases in honeybees will stay restricted to honeybees has disappeared:

A pattern showed up in the survey that fits that unpleasant scenario. Researchers tested for five viruses in pollinating insects and in their pollen hauls near apiaries in Pennsylvania, New York and Illinois. Israeli acute parasitic virus showed up in wild pollinators near honeybee installations carrying the disease but not near apiaries without the virus. In domestic honeybees, such viruses rank as one of the possible contributors to the still-mysterious malady known as colony collapse disorder that abruptly wipes out a hive’s workforce

Surveys show that wild bumblebees numbers are dwindling, and these viruses could pose a major threat.  Such problems as deformed-wing virus and sacbrood virus are ending up in pollen carried by foraging bees that weren’t infected themselves.  Yes, there is a bumblebee zero out there somewhere! These healthy, foraging insects carrying virus-laden pollen are part of their evidence that pollen by itself can transmit viral infections.