Subject: USDA: Honey Bees Used As A Biological Control

From: [email-masked] (Adam Finkelstein)
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 1994 00:06:59 GMT

Date: 25 Oct 94 16:33:00 EDT
From: "LISA SPURLOCK" <[email-masked]>

USDA Agricultural Research Service                     Sean Adams
Information Staff, Greenbelt, Md.                      (301) 344-2723
 
BUSY BEES COULD TAKE ON NEW PEST-CONTROL ROLE
     WASHINGTON, Oct. 24--A typical worker honeybee flies 500
miles and can search thousands of flowers for pollen and
nectar that it carries back to the beehive.  Now U.S.
Department of Agriculture scientists are using these female
bees to drop something off during their travels--an
environmentally friendly virus that kills crop pests.
     Scientists with USDA's Agricultural Research Service have
patented a device that dusts honeybees with a virus-talc
powder mixture when they leave the beehive.  As the bees buzz
>from  flower to flower, the virus and powder rub off their feet
and legs and onto the blossoms.  
     The virus is harmless to honeybees, but knocks down
populations of corn earworms that cause millions of dollars in
damage to crops, said John Hamm of the agency's Insect Biology
and Population Management Research Laboratory in Tifton, Ga.
     The virus-dusting device was developed by the late agency
entomologist Harry Gross, agency technician Raydene Johnson
and beekeeper J.C. Walters.  The patent, number 5,348,511, was
issued on Sept. 20.
     "Field studies show that the bees do a great job of
carrying the virus from one crimson clover flower to another,"
Hamm said.  "They're really ideal carriers because they work
hard and visit so many plants."  A bee has a foraging life
among flowers of 15 to 20 days--until the wings fray and wear
out.
     Hamm, who worked with Gross and cooperators on the
biocontrol field studies, said the virus killed from 74 to 87
percent of corn earworm larvae in crimson clover fields where
the bees carried the virus, called a nuclear polyhedrosis
virus (NPV).  That's compared to only 11 to 14 percent
mortality in fields where bees were not used.
     "The studies were done only with NPV and corn earworms,
but the beehive device can be used with any biocontrol agent
that doesn't harm the bees," he said.  That's the case with
NPV, which attacks only corn earworms and tobacco budworms and
does not hurt bees or other beneficial insects.  ARS
scientists at Beltsville, Md., have tested NPV in mice and
rats and have found no evidence of toxicity, Hamm said.
     The dusting device fits on the bottom of a standard
beehive.  It allows the bees to enter unobstructed.  But when
they leave the hive, they are forced to walk over a pan as
they exit.  Scientists put a mixture of NPV and talc powder in
the pan, so the bees' legs and feet are covered with the
mixture.
     Eric H. Erickson, who heads the ARS Honey Bee Research Lab
in Tucson, Ariz., said the new device is timely and
"definitely should be pursued.  It should be especially
appealing to beekeepers who rent their bees for pollinating
crops."
                                     #
NOTE TO EDITORS:  Contact John Hamm, entomologist, Insect
Biology and Population Management Research Lab, Agricultural
Research Service, USDA, Tifton, Ga.  31793.  Telephone:  (912)
387-2323.       
 
END

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  Adam Finkelstein    [email-masked] | [email-masked]
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