Could mushrooms be the key to saving bees?

[jedishrfu]

SEATTLE—The epiphany that mushrooms could help save the world’s ailing bee colonies struck Paul Stamets while he was in bed.

“I love waking dreams,” he said. “It’s a time when you’re just coming back into consciousness.”

Years ago, in 1984, Stamets had noticed a “continuous convoy of bees” traveling from a patch of mushrooms he was growing and his beehives. The bees actually moved wood chips to access his mushroom’s mycelium, the branching fibers of fungus that look like cobwebs.

https://triblive.com/usworld/world/...long-haired-hippie-could-help-save-the-worlds

 

[Bystander]

Just how many social insects are there "farming/manufacturing?" https://www.nature.com/articles/19519

 

[jedishrfu]

Just how many social insects are there "farming/manufacturing?" https://www.nature.com/articles/19519

I think several beellilion or more.

 

[alantheastronomer]

So is "Roundup" the real cause of hive collapse?

 

[Ygggdrasil]

So is "Roundup" the real cause of hive collapse?

Scientific studies have implicated pesticides containing neonicotinoid compounds in harming bees and other pollinator insects: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018...controversial-neonic-pesticides-threaten-bees

Roundup, whose active ingredient is the herbicide glyphosate, would not be expected to directly affect insects, and I am not aware of any studies showing this.

 

[Vanadium 50]

So is "Roundup" the real cause of hive collapse?

Unlikely, as CCD has been observed in the 19th century. Glyphosate was invented in the 1970's.

 

[alantheastronomer]

Scientific studies have implicated pesticides containing neonicotinoid compounds in harming bees and other pollinator insects: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018...controversial-neonic-pesticides-threaten-bees

Roundup, whose active ingredient is the herbicide glyphosate, would not be expected to directly affect insects, and I am not aware of any studies showing this.

The article you referenced stated that the compounds impaired the bees' navigation and reproduction. I remember reading somewhere that glyphosate weakened their immune system making them vulnerable to a certain fungus. I'm so sorry, I can't provide the reference for you.

 

[jedishrfu]

There’s this recent study titled:

Glyphosate perturbs the gut microbiota of honey bees

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/09/18/1803880115