Dr Smith said that, while stingless Australian bees were not susceptible to the varroa destructor, there was still cause for concern.

“Something that can happen — when you have populations of honey bees with varroa mite, they have a higher abundance of viruses … and there’s evidence some of those can spill over to native bees,” Dr Smith said.

“It’s possible we could get more unhealthy native bees if we have more unhealthy European honey bees as a result of .

“With these unknown questions about how European honey bee diseases can affect native bees, there is some need to be concerned.”

Read all about it

roughbarked said:

“With these unknown questions about how European honey bee diseases can affect native bees, there is some need to be concerned.”

imagine if that applied to a novel mammalian coronavirus and human populations but all right, that aside

we suggest the above is understated and there is absolutely a need to be very concerned

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

“With these unknown questions about how European honey bee diseases can affect native bees, there is some need to be concerned.”

imagine if that applied to a novel mammalian coronavirus and human populations but all right, that aside

we suggest the above is understated and there is absolutely a need to be very concerned

Imagine that we may not even know that some species exist, let alone that they may be profoundly affected and even disappear before we discover them?

roughbarked said:

Imagine that we may not even know that some species exist, let alone that they may be profoundly affected and even disappear before we discover them?

ah well it’ll be less work once they’re gone then

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

Imagine that we may not even know that some species exist, let alone that they may be profoundly affected and even disappear before we discover them?

ah well it’ll be less work once they’re gone then

So other than telling my bees not to mix with any of them foreigners, what can I do to protect them?

The Rev Dodgson said:

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

Imagine that we may not even know that some species exist, let alone that they may be profoundly affected and even disappear before we discover them?

ah well it’ll be less work once they’re gone then

So other than telling my bees not to mix with any of them foreigners, what can I do to protect them?

support biosecurity measures

The Rev Dodgson said:

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

Imagine that we may not even know that some species exist, let alone that they may be profoundly affected and even disappear before we discover them?

ah well it’ll be less work once they’re gone then

So other than telling my bees not to mix with any of them foreigners, what can I do to protect them?

Be a citizen scientist and report any changes to the scientists.

SCIENCE said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

SCIENCE said:

ah well it’ll be less work once they’re gone then

So other than telling my bees not to mix with any of them foreigners, what can I do to protect them?

support biosecurity measures

correct.

I keep meaning to start that varroa destructor project but it’s hard to do on my own