Mushrooms help in the war on varroa

[hallshoney]

https://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-agriculture/how-mushrooms-might-save-honey-bee.html this popped up on my news feed today

 

[colinc]

Gotta love hippy journalism. "Better than not treating...." needs some figures to back that up,

"Avoid more chemicals by extracting compounds from mushrooms" - most of our drugs are extracted from natural organisms in this way, just on an industrial scale.

Anyone got the original research paperwork? Rather than the hippy rag, dumbed down version.


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[wightbees]

I bet it's magic mushrooms too

 

[madasafish]

Any article with this second paragraph: "As honey bee (Apis mellifera) populations around the world are declining thanks to the mysterious phenomenon known as “colony collapse disorder” (CCD) – the cause of which is not exactly known, "

is not worth reading. It spouts lies.

 

[Millet]

I bet it's magic mushrooms too

Dear lord don't mention those things, i picked a bag full when i was around 17yrs old i munched on 25 of them and my twin brother scoffed a full handful,never again lol ,i was monged for around six hours and my brother was in hospital wired to a heart monitor while watching Jimmy Hill commentating a football match on the hospital curtains.. after that experience i would want nothing like that near the bees.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Bit of an extreme way to get to watch jimmy Hill

 

[wightbees]

Haha what a Buzz! Learnt your lesson there though.

 

[Apiarisnt]

Fungi to control varroa - not news

Real work on this has been going on since at least 2003:

BIOLOGICAL AND MICROBIAL CONTROL 2003
Field Trials Using the Fungal Pathogen, Metarhizium anisopliae
(Deuteromycetes: Hyphomycetes) to Control the Ectoparasitic Mite,
Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidae) in Honey Bee, Apis mellifera
(Hymenoptera: Apidae) Colonies
LAMBERT HOUSSOU BLE KANGA,1 WALKER A. JONES, AND ROSALIND R. JAMES2

and
Exp Appl Acarol (2006) 40:249–258

Efficacy of strips coated with Metarhizium anisopliae
for control of Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidae)
in honey bee colonies in Texas and Florida
Lambert H. B. Kanga

but I suspect the recent hype might have to do with the fact that this patent was granted last year:

https://www.google.com/patents/US9474776

to a mycolgist Paul Stamets whose scientific credentials and accolades include, according to Wikipedia so it must be true, having a character in 'Star Trek: Discovery' named after him.

Apparently he has asked Washington State University to "help confirm his hunches about bees and fungi" https://news.wsu.edu/2016/11/28/researchers-feed-breed-protect-bees-survive-winter/

 

[colinc]

Real work on this has been going on since at least 2003:

BIOLOGICAL AND MICROBIAL CONTROL 2003
Field Trials Using the Fungal Pathogen, Metarhizium anisopliae
(Deuteromycetes: Hyphomycetes) to Control the Ectoparasitic Mite,
Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidae) in Honey Bee, Apis mellifera
(Hymenoptera: Apidae) Colonies
LAMBERT HOUSSOU BLE KANGA,1 WALKER A. JONES, AND ROSALIND R. JAMES2

and
Exp Appl Acarol (2006) 40:249–258

Efficacy of strips coated with Metarhizium anisopliae
for control of Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidae)
in honey bee colonies in Texas and Florida
Lambert H. B. Kanga

but I suspect the recent hype might have to do with the fact that this patent was granted last year:

https://www.google.com/patents/US9474776

to a mycolgist Paul Stamets whose scientific credentials and accolades include, according to Wikipedia so it must be true, having a character in 'Star Trek: Discovery' named after him.

Apparently he has asked Washington State University to "help confirm his hunches about bees and fungi" https://news.wsu.edu/2016/11/28/researchers-feed-breed-protect-bees-survive-winter/

Thanks. Far more interesting and useful than the treehugger guff article. I mean no disrespect to the OP on this but the article sucks.


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[Beefriendly]

And now for something completely different............that does work.
Costic acid isolated from False Yellowhead plants is up there as a new varroa treatment. Comparable with Oxalic acid (when sprayed) and up there with Bayvarol strips. No effects on bees or on human umbilical vein endothelial cells..so they say. The paper evens give you a detailed protocol on how to prepare your own from dried leaves.

I'll end with a "no comment" and don't shoot the messenger.

 

[Millet]

Bit of an extreme way to get to watch jimmy Hill

He was not really there though he was hallucinating

 

[Finman]

.
Once upon a time there was three bears... The last ones on British Isles.... They going to eate porriage but.... Someone had tasted it... Mrrr

 

[Erichalfbee]

He was not really there though he was hallucinating

Yes I got that!

 

[Apiarisnt]

And now for something completely different............that does work.
Costic acid isolated from False Yellowhead plants is up there as a new varroa treatment. Comparable with Oxalic acid (when sprayed) and up there with Bayvarol strips. No effects on bees or on human umbilical vein endothelial cells..so they say. The paper even gives you a detailed protocol on how to prepare your own from dried leaves.

...and has already been patented: https://www.google.com/patents/WO2009153607A1?cl=en

Also see this thread https://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38685 (Fleabane vs Varroa ?) but do not confuse your fleabanes

 

[Beefriendly]

I wasn't aware of the patent or the thread, thanks for that info, very interesting. The research paper was published this year and many of the same names appear on the paper as in the patent! Summats going on
....

 

[colinc]

Haha


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[Finman]

.
Melisea Breyer starts her article that honey bees are declining everywhere.

Is it worth to continue rearing the text, because bees are not declining. Not even in USA.

But it was classical start, only.

 

[JWF]

I wasn't aware of the patent or the thread, thanks for that info, very interesting. The research paper was published this year and many of the same names appear on the paper as in the patent! Summats going on
....

They've got their patent before they've published the findings - probably making sure that nobody nicks the concept.

 

[Finman]

.
We have lots of forests and every tree and vacciniun plant lives in symbiosis with mushrooms.

Forest has never saved a beehive from varroa.

Yeah. Bees drink water from forest soil. IT means nothing..
.

 

[Fritillary]

And now for something completely different............that does work.
Costic acid isolated from False Yellowhead plants is up there as a new varroa treatment.

Had never heard of 'false yellowhead' (- somehow reminded me of a certain politician) so looked it up: Dittrichia viscosa? "Invasive in Australia".

(If only we could discover some wonderful new use for ground elder...)