Winter Bees, Summer Bees and Imidacloprid (S5, E19)

Winter bees, those bees that emerge during the cold winter months when there is little to no exposure to the world outside, are very different from summer bees, which emerge during the hectic and exposed to everything bees are exposed to in their environment. In today’s episode, we talk with Drs. Mohamed Alburaki and Miguel Corona, two USDA-ARS entomologists researching these differences and specifically the effects of the neonaticide imidacloprid on developing bee larvae.

The environment for winter bees is almost exclusively limited to what happens inside the hive. They live months longer than summer bees. Summer bees, on the other hand, live very short lives. Summer bees are either nurse bees or foragers, or maybe both, so they are exposed to all the things their environment has to offer. One of those is exposure to pesticides, the most common is imidacloprid.

It turns out, summer bees tend to prefer food given to them that has some small amount of this pesticide in it. The speculation is that the taste is what they are used to – all summer long they ate food tainted with this pesticide. Meanwhile, winter bees, who never foraged or fed bees with nectar or pollen exposed to this pesticide, didn’t like it at all and would avoid it at all costs.

What this means for beekeepers is that managing your bees to avoid pesticides is the best option you can have. If you can’t avoid it, be aware of your bee’s tendency to favor the pesticide taste, if that is what they were raised on. It’s a complicated and toxic world out there. Be aware. You can read this very well thought out USDA paper by clicking on the link provided. You may have to read it twice. We had to read it more than that, but it was well worth the time.

We hope you enjoy the episode. Leave comments and questions in the Comments Section of the episode's website.

Thank you for listening!

Links and websites mentioned in this podcast:

• Research Papers: Imidacloprid and bee phenotype: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13592-022-00922-9
• Research Papers: Polyurethane vs Wooden hives: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00218839.2021.1999578
• Honey Bee Obscura - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com

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This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global offers a variety of standard and custom patties. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode!

We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com

Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com

Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry.

We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor.

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