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There are no wild honey bees. They got wiped out in the 1990s by varroa mites.
by wang_li 11y ago
There are no wild honey bees. They got wiped out in the 1990s by varroa mites.
- slavik81 11y agoThere are other species of wild bees besides honey bees. Are they not affected by this?
- Houshalter 11y agoIt's unlikely. Wild bees are not affected by the same diseases and parasites, have much more genetic diversity, and are adapted for this climate. Honeybees are not native, they have less genetic diversity from domestication and importation, and they are transported around the country by beekeepers every year (spreading their diseases and parasites around.) Nor do they have to deal with their produce being taken by humans.
- ultrasandwich 11y agoSource? As someone who kept tabs on wild honeybee colonies around the Austin area, I'm a little baffled by this comment.
- wang_li 11y agoIt's not as settled as my comment made it sound, but the second paragraph at the below article briefly touches on the idea: http://www.honeybeesuite.com/of-feral-colonies-and-varroa-mites/ http://www.honeybeesuite.com/of-feral-colonies-and-varroa-mi...
- kaitai 11y agoWild honey bees in the US have always been descended from escaped domesticated bees. Native wild bees in North America don't seem to make honey. The population of feral honey bees has certainly collapsed, but it's not zero (in part because bees keep escaping!). A fun article on the possible benefits of learning more about the wild bee cousins: http://grist.org/food/born-to-bee-wild-how-feral-pollinators-may-help-prevent-colony-collapse-disorder/ http://grist.org/food/born-to-bee-wild-how-feral-pollinators...