These days I’m thinking and talking much about threatened insects, mainly about bees, obviously. I’m always trying to explain, why we need more than some insect hotels and bee-friendly flowers to stop insect decline. As I explained in my last post, there are different levels to “saving the bees” or insects or whatever. Individual actions…
Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) is a honeybee disease vectored by Varroa mites. In highly infested honeybee (Apis mellifera) colonies, bees with crippled wings and short abdomens are symptoms of varroosis, caused by the virus. Though it originates clearly from the European Honeybee, it is able to replicate in varroa mites. The parasitic mites turn an…
Insect decline made it to the top news. The tips on how to save the bees, help insects or even biodiversity are everywhere. It seems simple, just plant a few flowers, buy organic and tell the politicians to ban all pesticides. I’m obviously exaggerating here, but you know my aversion against simplifying. Unfortunately, it’s much…
Insect decline is a huge issue, and luckily, this awareness is arriving in a wider public and even politics. However, the path from almost total neglect to taking action is a stony one. There are various reasons for the decrease in insect populations. A recent reviewvery impressively shows that we actually almost know nothing –…
Honey bee welfare is mostly referred to as “bee health”; very misleading in my opinion. Most people think of “health” as absence from diseases. Despite also this definition isn’t correct, I prefer the term “welfare”. It includes aspects like nutrition, freedom of pain and distress or the natural range of behaviour. As honey bees are…
When it comes to bee conservation, New Year’s resolutions may not be the right tool. Now about a week into the New Year, they’re usually already out of sight. In the past weeks, however, I’ve been reasoning about how I can move forward with BeeSafe and this blog. I learned quite a lot about how…
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