Colony Collapse Disorder has everyone worry that Western dearest bees will vaporize , leaving our craw un - pollinated , our biscuit un - honeyed , and our auricle bereft of the sound of buzzing . One man , however , thinks he might be able to stop the spread of worm disease and parasitical mites that are probable causes of CCD . Francis Ratnieks is the sole professor of beekeeping ( apiculture ) in the United Kingdom , and he want to breed a exceptional melodic line of worker bee that can protect their colonies from demolition . Ratnieks has been conduct research on “ hygienic ” actor bees , who are genetically programmed to do the cheating work in a bee dependency — in other word , to cull the larva that are n’t behave hale and sizeable , as he toldThe Observer :
“ Hygienic bees have a hard tendency to houseclean things up , remove pupae and larvae if they are dead or cash in one’s chips , ” say Ratnieks , who has been studying bees , ants and WASP for 25 years . “ What this hygienics can do is control sure case of disease , particularly disease of the brood like chalkbrood , American foulbrood and varroa mite . “ In the pillow slip of varroa mites , the distaff lays eggs on the pupa in its cellphone . These eggs turn into child mites . hygienical bees can detect this is taking stead and they remove the wax ceiling to the cell and jerk out the pupa . So they do n’t really kill the female varroa mite , but they do prevent her breeding . It is not a complete control against varroa , but it can slow down down the growth , therefore helping apiculturist keep on top of the disease . ”
presently , only ten percent of hives even have hygienical bees ; within any one of those hives , about ten per centum of the proletarian bee are hygienic . Ratnieks has just received 100,000 pounds from private UK house Rowse Honey for research on upping the percentage of hygienic bee . Rowse has also declared its support for the British Beekeepers Association , who want £ 8 million in emergency brake bee research funding from the government . And here I was think the only bee - relate tragedy was thatno one is keep an eye on Pushing Daisies ! Honeybee effigy fromWikimedia Commons . “Clean - up ” bees could keep endangered hives[The Observer ]
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