Bees

A pile of dead bees, some with heads torn from their bodies. This grisly scene is the result of a “murder hornet” making its way through a bee hive, according to a New York Times report that went viral over the weekend. Amid a pandemic, it seems unfair to have nature inflict another curveball on…

WASHINGTON (Reuters): Hundreds of Asian giant hornets, an invasive, predatory insect dubbed the "murder hornet," have turned up in Washington state near the Canadian border, where they pose a threat to humans and the beekeeping industry, state agriculture officials said on Monday. The stinging Vespa mandarinia can grow as large…

Murder Hornets are known to attack honey bees and have 6mm-long stingers. (Pixabay pic)WASHINGTON: Hundreds of Asian giant hornets, an invasive, predatory insect dubbed the “murder hornet”, have turned up in Washington state near the Canadian border, where they pose a threat to humans and the beekeeping industry, state agriculture…

By Alex McKeenVancouver BureauMon., May 4, 2020timer5 min. readVICTORIA—When John and Moufida Holubeshen heard that a nightmarish insect known for its poisonous sting and voracious appetite had arrived in their neck of the woods, they did what almost no one would have done.They went looking for it.The Nanaimo, B.C. residents…

A giant, bee-killing insect dubbed the “murder hornet” is making inroads in the United States, threatening crops that depend on pollination, and humans who may get in its way. The Asian giant hornet, Vespa mandarinia, is native to places like Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, but was detected in Washington…

The first days of spring – brighter and warmer – are a biological trigger for female bees to wake up from hibernation and begin to build future colonies. These enormous bees, sometimes two to three times larger than a worker bee, are vital to our ecosystem and carry all the…

Research First published: 29 April 2020 Abstract Flower visitation does not necessarily mean pollination. In this sense, floral visitors can either act as mutualists (pollinators) or antagonists (floral robbers/thieves), indicating that these interactions are part of a continuum and that a visitor species can present multiple behaviours. We included both…

It's not just crops that rely on bumblebees; wild plants do too. Credit: Anthony King Scientists used a radar to track a bumblebee from its maiden flight until death for the first time as part of wider research racing to understand the impact and needs of declining bee populations, including…

Threatened honey bees, endangered bumblebees, fading butterflies... we hear alarms all the time about the global decline in pollinators, but does anybody really know how many are out there? Starting May 1, there'll be a free app to try to answer that question as part of the first World Bee…

Plummeting insect numbers are becoming a concern. Academic discourse focused on three main causes: the destruction of habitats, pesticides in agriculture and the decline of food plants for insects. A team of researchers from the Universities of Bonn and Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape…