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‘Could become a death spiral’: scientists discover what’s driving record die-offs of US honeybees (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Scientists have been scrambling to discover what happened; now the culprits are emerging. A research paper published by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), though not yet peer-reviewed, has found nearly all colonies had contracted a bee virus spread by parasitic mites that appear to have developed resistance to the main chemicals used to control them.

Varroa mites spreading disease.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Is this news? I thought these mites were already on beekeepers radars

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 days ago

Further down the article they quote someone saying they don't think this is the actual cause. Apparently the mites and virus are in most hives, so they're not convinced it's the cause of the die off rather than just a symptom of a weakened hive.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

Looked into beekeeping on and off and varroa mites are a top consideration in any source I've read.