4 ms·
I found many dead bumblebees this year and many of them were infected with mites. It seems as if varroa mites have carried viruses from infected honey bees to
by qayxc 5y ago
I found many dead bumblebees this year and many of them were infected with mites.
It seems as if varroa mites have carried viruses from infected honey bees to wild bees and are killing a lot them.
- Rochus 5y agoIs this analyzed by science? Are there any publications on this?
- qayxc 5y agoYes there are: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31190366/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31190366/
- Rochus 5y agoThat's an interesting paper, thanks; here is the link to the freely accessible version: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6852581/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6852581/ But I'm not sure whether this is really the cause of my observation; everything looked normal in April and May, but suddenly by end of May the bumblebees vanished. I still see some from time to time (one or two a day, compared to dozens in normal years). I also found a few exhausted ones on the ground that could no longer fly, but there were no mites on those.