Wednesday, June 9, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 5
Scientist searches for secret to honey bee survival
By Phil Cauthon
Kansan staff writer
On the scorching plains near the southern tip of Texas, an old semitrailer stands alone surrounded by miles of grassy fields and abandoned airstrips. Under the red lights inside, University of Kansas entomology professor and world-renowned honey bee expert Orley 'Chip' Taylor hunches over a microscope examining one of the 100,000 killer bees living in the trailer.
Several times a year, Taylor leaves the University of Kansas for the 20-hour trek south, where he hopes to find a way to prevent a parasitic mite from costing U.S. citizens billions of dollars a year.
African honey bees, also known as killer bees for their aggressiveness, have caused the deaths of nearly 400 Mexicans and a dozen Americans. Nonetheless, these lethal insects have the potential to save millions of dollars and millions of lives — those of their cousins, European honey bees. Taylor is researching why African bees such as his are relatively immune to a mite which is wiping out European bees essential for the annual pollination of $10 billion to $20 billion worth of U.S. crops.
Over the last 20 years, the varroa mite has virtually eliminated wild European honey bees all over the world and has only been staved off in beekeepers' colonies using a miticide. But as the mites develop a tolerance to the chemical, scientists like Taylor must figure out a more permanent cure or crops like alfalfa (used to feed cattle), soy beans and most fruits and vegetables will rapidly decline in step with honey bee populations.
Taylor gained national prominence when he was quoted in reports ranging from National Geographic to the BBC as killer bees began entering the United States in the 1980s. Now, although he said his group's study of the varroa mite was about four years behind other scientists, he expects his
method to produce a solution much more quickly.
"What we're trying to do is get at the basic interaction between the mites and the bees," Taylor said. "Virtually everybody that has a biology program involving honey bees is trying to select for resistance to these mites. But none of them are working at this level of detail."
While many scientists are breeding entire European colonies that have relatively high levels of mite resistance, Taylor hopes to isolate the difference between African and European bee responses to the mites. Because the African bees pose too great a health hazard to be used for pollination, Taylor thinks applying their resistance traits to European bees is the best solution to the mite problem.
To observe the bees away from the colony, Taylor is using a plastic pencil box, modified with feeding nipples and a tray at the bottom to collect mites as they fall off the bees — a technique called a bioassay. Taylor conducts short-term observations to determine precisely what causes higher death rates of mites on the African bees, thereby reducing mite birth rates. This would create a basis for mite resistance in the European bees, he said.
Working with KU graduate students, Taylor maintains six colonies of African bees and six colonies of European bees. Each has tubes leading out of the trailer into the open Texas air. Amidst the labyrinth of these glass-encased bee colonies, Taylor monitors 50 bees of both species over a 12-day period of exposure to the varroa mites.
Mite resistance in European bees could also be found through cross-breeding with African bees. Taylor is working with Mike Palmer, an entomology doctoral student from Newport, N.Y., to study wild killer bees captured in bait hives along the desolate stretches of southern Texas highways. If cross-breeding has occurred, there's a chance that a European bee with the African bees' mite resistance
"The mites can be in a colony indefinitely as long as their death rate is sufficiently high," Taylor said. "All the African colonies have mites, but they go on as if they didn't exist."
could be found.
The African bees do not succumb to the parasites because the mites usually die before they can reproduce. However, in wiping out the wild European bees, the varroa mite was able to move between a hive's brood cells — where they reproduce — feeding on the blood of developing bees. Taylor said. The mites then emerge from the cells attached to the young bees, spreading to other bees and repeating the cycle. Worker and drone bees that have been in contact with just one mite live half the life span required to effectively take care of the next generation of bees.
Palmer said that Taylor was very knowledgeable about the subject.
"Without a doubt, KU is the best place to be working on this project," Palmer said. "This is a very strong program."
However, funding for the project will end after June, and Taylor doesn't anticipate another grant. "It is extremely difficult to get money for research," Taylor said. "But we will continue working with the bees on a very cost-effective basis."
"There's big money in it," he said.
"Not for the bee keepers, not for honey producers or for anyone in particular except for the American public. We wouldn't have the diversity of foods — the fruits, nuts and vegetables — without honey bees."
Taylor said that it was important to come up with a solution to the mite problem.
KU professor of entomology Chip Taylor shows kids how to properly disassemble a bee colony during a the annual Honeybee Convention at Mid-Con in Olathe, Kan. Taylor lectured to the kids' parents — local beekeepers and visiting scientists — about his research on the varroa mite. Photo by Phil Cauthou/KANSAN
— Edited by Kimberly Erb
The Lied Center of Kansas 1999-2000 Season
September
BELL / BUSH / MARSHALL / MEYER
Friday, September 17, 1999, 8:00 p.m.
THE WHITEHEATED BOY
Saturday, September 25, 1999, 7:00 p.m.
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SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE:
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Wednesday, September 29, 1999, 8:00 p.m.
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Wednesday, February 23, 2000, 8:00 p.m.
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Tuesday, February 29, 2000, 8:00 p.m.
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