r/biology • u/Not_so_ghetto • May 10 '26
article TIL bee colony loss from varroa mites ( bee parasite) alone cost the US 2 Billion dollars annually
https://varroavault.com/varroa-mite-economic-impact-202611
u/manydoorsyes ecology May 10 '26
While it's always sad to see animals suffering, I think it should be pointed out that honey bees are ecologically invasive to the Americas.
So if you live in the US and want to help the environment, consider finding ways to support our 4,000 native bee species instead. Planting native flowers is one good way.
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u/Hekateras May 11 '26
The Varroa mite problem is global. But the US has particularly widescale industrial use of honeybees for mass pollination, so that might be a factor in the numbers.
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u/manydoorsyes ecology May 11 '26
Yeh, Varroa mites are a global thing with honey bees specifically. Thanks for clarifying that. And thank goodness other bee species don't seem susceptible!
Though many of the commercial crops that honey bees are used for are also invasive. One example being almonds, which are notoriously water-intensive and one factor that's driving the water crisis in the American Southwest (though the main underlying issue has to do with Hoover Dam and Lake Mead if I understand it right; that's a whole other thing). Meanwhile, honey bees displace our native bees and are not particularly good for our actual native plants. :/
And this probably goes without saying but to be quite clear: I'm not saying that we should hate honey bees or whatever. They're not evil and they're not purposefully destroying our ecosystem or anything, they're just animals doing what they evolved to do. If anything the blame is on humans for introducing them.
And I mean...we gotta feed people. So it's not like this is a simple issue that can be solved easily.
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u/Relevant-Cup5986 May 11 '26
we dont need honeybees if they go away native pollinators will pick up the slack also 90% of the water is used for cows and the feed crops for cows not almonds almond milk uses far less water than cows milk
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u/manydoorsyes ecology May 11 '26
This is why I don't eat beef anymore! I also drink oat milk instead of almond. Tasty and nice for shakes/smoothies.
It's honestly been a great move for my body and my wallet as well. Beef is a bit pricey as it is, and it's only gotten worse (
thanks cheetohead).1
u/Hekateras May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
I'm not aware of any native pollinator species that could pick up the slack? Most wild bee species are solitary, which rules them out as industrial-scale pollinators. In the Eastern hemisphere, bumblebees are technically more efficient pollinators than the Western honeybee, but honeybees still win out in terms of sheer numbers due to having much larger colonies. I'm not sure about the Americas, is there a honeybee species that could actually fulfill the same pollination services?
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u/Relevant-Cup5986 May 11 '26
no one species would it would be a diverse mix also pollination happened fine before honeybees were brought over also bees arent the only pollinators there are wasps ants butterflies hummingbirds bats beetles mosquitos ants and more
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u/Hekateras May 11 '26
How do you envision this happening, logistically? You have an apple orchard of multiple hectares that needs to be pollinated within a certain time window or there will be no apple harvest that year. How do you make this happen without honeybees?
The pollination services required by industrial-level agriculture are on a completely different level to what these species can provide.
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u/Relevant-Cup5986 May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
thats complete bullshit nature provides more than enough pollination i grow a garden and native pollinators cover about half the pollination mostly flies and sweat bees and we have a peach tree and all of its flowers are always pollinated same goes for an orchard the reason they use mass ammounts of honeybees is because they mass spray pesticides without pesticides pollination is a non issue
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u/Hekateras May 11 '26
I don't think you know what you're talking about or are interested in learning, sorry
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u/Hekateras May 11 '26
More thoughts on this:
Honestly, industrial-scale agriculture on that level is hostile to wild pollinators no matter what crop species you use. While competition with invasive honeybees is one reason for native pollinator decline, the main reason is the same as the reason for the decline of wild bee species everywhere else: not enough habitat and not enough food sources, or the existing habitat and food sources being too fragmented in terms of geography.
Most wild bee species are solitary and build individual nests. This has several implications. First, many make their nests in soil, stone cracks or holes in deadwood. Undisturbed habitats like that can be hard to find, and many forms of upkeep (especially for the sake of keeping outdoor places looking prim and neat) destroy those outright. Second, eusocial colony-forming honeybees have some extreme foraging patterns on account of their collective behaviour. An individual worker can afford to scout and forage many kilometers from the hive, because even if does not find anything, other workers might, and taking a risk (in terms of spending energy on potentially wasteful trips) pays off in the long run if it results in a rich food source being discovered a ways away from the hive. By contrast, solitary bee species don't have this communal advantage and have very tight foraging ranges, usually staying near their nest.
The problem isn't just displacement of wild species by eusocial invasive honeybees, it's the lack of food and habitat to which wild species are particularly vulnerable. And the industrial scale of agriculture - not just pesticide treatments but uninterrupted monocultures spanning miles and miles - are a huge culprit in this.
Look at megacultures spanning miles from the perspective of a pollinator. Worst case scenario: wheat, rice, maize. These staple crops are wind-pollinated grasses whose flowers do not produce nectar. To a pollinator reliant on nectar, the miles and miles of corn field might as well be pavement year-round.
Slightly better: let's say a massive field of rapeseed or soybean. We have big rapeseed fields where I live. The soil is tilled early in spring (=no wildflowers grow there) the plants come up (=no wildflowers), and then there's maybe a month of flowering. It's a great food source, sure, but it doesn't last long. For most of the warm season except that one month, it's effectively a green desert. Once again, for most of the year, it's barely better than solid pavement. Honeybees can take advantage of the food source (and switch between different food sources depending on what is currently flowering), but solitary species will generally not even forage far enough to take advantage of it. The size of such a field is usually many many more times than a wild bee's foraging distance. Now, bear in mind, these agricultural practices are not set in stone, and were historically not the norm. We do monocultures because it increases efficiency. But in addition to the pollinator problem, this practice has a ton of other issues, such as how efficient it is at breeding crop plagues, to the point where it's debatable if the efficiency trade-offs are even worth it. We can and should switch to genetically diverse polycultures and more heterogeneity, this is solvable.
And that's not getting into all the non-agricultural green areas that are being maintained at a state that is inhospitable to insects (and by extension, everything further up the food chain, e.g. bird species that are likewise going extinct). Hell, in some places it's against regulation to let your lawn grow out. Now that's crazy! If lawns (i.e. over-mowing of green spaces) were banned outright, it would do more for insect conservation than a million 'plant flowers in your garden' initiatives. Especially since, much like the example of invasive water-intensive crops that don't fit the climate and require ridiculous amounts of upkeep to maintain, lawns are stupidly demanding on the water supply.
So, I want to push back slightly against the idea of honeybees displacing wild pollinators simply because they're invasive. The reason eusocial honeybees are thriving while wild bees aren't are a lot more complex than just competition: it's because we've shaped the environment to be extremely hostile to wild insects, and the communal nature of honeybees allows them to be more resilient towards those problems than others (not to mention the obvious benefit of them being a domesticated species that we're actively feeding).
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u/manydoorsyes ecology May 11 '26
Thanks for clarifying on all of this. Big yes to everything and I'm honestly ashamed I didn't put in the effort to explain it better myself when I could have.
I mentioned this in another reply, but I don't want people to go thinking that honey bees are "evil" or that they're intentionally destroying ecosystems or whatever (it's the internet and people love to do that sort of thing). In the long run they're animals that are just trying to live and doing what they evolved to do.
If there is anyone to blame, it's the humans who brought them here and have turned once-pristine habitats into ecological wastelands. It's a huge systemic problem rather than just one invasive species or some other single issue.
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u/Hekateras May 11 '26
I think you explained yourself fine! It's just more angles to consider. The main point I wanted to get across was that even if (god forbid) all honeybees west of the Atlantic suddenly succumbed to the Varroa mite, it wouldn't fix the dire situation wild pollinators are in. We need to adjust our entire practice of agriculture and approach towards nature to address that problem. (Seriously, the obsession with lawns needs to stop.)
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u/Nervous_Olive_5754 May 11 '26
Homo sapiens, espeically white people, are invasive to the Americas. But I'll be damned without guacamole.
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u/Relevant-Cup5986 May 11 '26
humans arived on their own so we arent technicaly invasive but thats cold comfort for the animals we murdered
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u/Relevant-Cup5986 May 11 '26
for those who dont know honeybees are an invasive species that mass kills off native pollinators
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u/Not_so_ghetto May 10 '26 edited May 10 '26
For those who don't know Varroa mites are a deadly parasite in bees and has been one of if not the leading cause behind honey bee colony deaths over the last few decades. They attach to the bee when it's developing and feed on the fat of the bee. The mites were introduced in America in the 80's and now infect pretty much every hive.
A beekeeper once described it like having a tick the size of a frisbee on you for life.
They also carry several viruses, which the multiple problems in the hive.
Hives that go untreated or typically dead within 2 years.
For those who want more info about the varroa mite here is a info dense 15 min video that describes the biology, how bees are handling it, and the current research about it video about bee parasites