"Mite" This Help Bees?

Task #1:  Identify another scientist or engineer who is familiar with the technical application your team selected.  Explain who she is, where she works, and what she does for a living.

 

Amy Thomson has been working as a Science Teacher at the Davis School for Independent Study (DSIS) in Davis, CA for 20 years.  She also lived on one of the largest apiaries in our county, Tauzer Apiaries, for about 14 years.  She has an undergraduate degree in Animal Science and her teaching credential from the California Polytechnic College in San Luis Obispo.

 

 

 

Task #2:  Send this person a detailed e-mail that describes the problem you are working on and the technical application your team thinks would solve the problem....  Include the e-mail your team sent and the e-mail your team received from the person you contacted.

 

Dear Ms. Thomson,

 

We are doing a project for the Internet Science and Technology Fair (ISTF), which is run by the University of Central Florida (UCF).  They ask us to identify a problem in our community and research it using the internet.  Then, we design a solution in detail with input from technical advisors.  The problem and solution should fit into a National Critical Technology (NCT), which is a technological category designated by the U.S. government to be important to problems in science for the United States.  We then create a website on our chosen topic, using the specific guidelines detailed on the ISTF website (istf.ucf.edu).

 

The problem that our team chose is Varroa destructor mites infesting bee hives.  Through pollination, bees provide humans with 1/3 of the food we eat, but their population is rapidly diminishing due to colony collapse disorder (CCD).  One prominent cause of CCD is this Varroa destructor mite, an arachnid that attaches to foraging bees, gaining access to hives and feeding on bees!  Bees are weakened from mites feeding on the bees' hemolymph.  Even more dangerous to a colony, however, is the efficient transmission of viruses by the mites.  The afflicted bee is exposed to ribonucleic acid viruses, such as deformed wing virus.  These viruses are carried by the mite from one bee host and transmitted directly into the circulatory system of other bee hosts while the mite is feeding, spreading treacherously throughout the colony.  Rapid mite reproduction, combined with the spreading of disease, can wipe out a whole colony or even a set of colonies nearby each other! 

 

So, we have designed a potential solution for this problem.  This solution applies our chosen NCT Technical Application, which is Ecosystem Management.  This technical application falls under the category of Living Systems, and the sub-category that we chose from Living Systems is Sustainable Agriculture Production.  Because we are trying to help bees get rid of the Varroa destructor mites, we call our project '“Mite” This Help Bees?’.

 

Before returning to their hives, bees could be channeled through areas with decelerating structures (funnels) and deceptive scents, prompting the mites to drop off the bees and into a trap!  More bees would survive, allowing more sustainable crop pollination.  Our design would extend the alighting board and the entrance out from the hive, using 4 funnels attached to each other.  These funnels would repeatedly slow down the bees at each narrow part of the funnels.  The funnels would be made out of a metal mesh with openings through which only creatures as small as Varroa mites could fall.  

 

Below the funnels, there would be a removable tray inside of a box that would be attached to the side of the hive.  This tray would be covered in a sticky gelatin coating with the scent of drone brood cells.  This coating would attract the mites, as the real scent does in the hive; as the bees slowed down, the mites would catch wind of the drone-brood-cell-scent, scramble off the bees, and fall into the trap.  This way, the bees wouldn't come in contact with any chemical, and the mites simply would think that they are entering a brood cell, so the possibility of mites becoming immune shouldn't be an issue.  When the tray became filled with mites, the beekeeper would need to remove the tray, dispose of the mites, refill the tray with the scented, gelatin coating, and put the tray back in the box.   

 

To make an artificial drone scent, we need to know how real drones scents are made.  Both larvae and pupae release a pheromone, which helps nurse bees (which nurture the brood) distinguish drones from other bees.  An artificial brood pheromone was created by a team of French researchers in 1996.  So we believe that the exact make-up of the drone brood pheromone could be created in this way, or modified from the artificial pheromone already created, to use for our design.  

 

In case you would like to view the entire website, we are sending the information for accessing it in a separate email.  We would really appreciate it if you would be willing to respond with any comments or suggestions that you have regarding our idea and design.  If you are able to do this, could you please respond in an email replying to this one?

 

Also, we will include a short bio of you on the website, so if there is any information about your education, career, or background that you would like us to include, please feel free to email that to us as well!

 

Thank you very much for your time and consideration!

 

Sincerely,

 

Team ‘“Mite” This Help Bees?’

 

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Here is the response we received from Ms. Thomson:

 

Dear Team "Mite" This Help Bees?",

 

Thank you all for sharing your work for the Internet Science and Technology Fair project.  I enjoyed reading your website on dealing with Varroa destructor mites and your design for a solution. Your website demonstrates insightful understanding of research into this complex problem bee problem and your ideas take this into account with a creative idea for a solution.  Along with reading your website I talked to Mark Tauzer at Tauzer Appieris about your project and did a little research of my own.  I have a few comments and feedback that you will hopefully find helpful.

 

I like your website -- find it well designed, and easy to understand.  Your team has done a thorough job researching and explaining the Varroa destructor mites and the problem they cause for bees and ultimately those who are connected to the plants that bees pollinate.  It shows a deep understanding of Varroa destructor mite problems and the solution of designing an entrance with pheromones to attract the mites and be trapped is creative and thoughtful.  Your team has good ideas!

 

A related topic to your project that might give you further information for your mite trap design is pollen traps.  They have some similarities to your project and might give you insights that are also helpful.  My understanding from talking to Mark Tauzer and doing some reading is that research has shown pollen traps are successful in removing a lot of mites and they have some seminaries to your project.  The research into pollen traps might support your design and might give you more information to consider for management and design of your mite trap.

 

One last thing I want to pass on is to make sure you know about a few local resources that might be helpful for further working on your project.  Sue Colby is known around the world for her bee researchers at the University of California, Davis.  In addition, a local bee keeper who has done a lot of research and trials of natural ways to deal with mites is Pat Meade.  Lastly the team might like to visit and to talk with Tauzer Apiaries.  When I talked with Mark Tauzer he especially liked hearing about all of your work and invited your team to come visit.  If you are interested and need help connecting with these people please let me know.

 

As you know, my background includes working as an Independent Study Teacher and Science Teacher for 20 years.  I also lived on one of the major apiaries in our area, Tauzer Apiaries, for about 14 years.  I have my degree in Animal Science and a teaching credential from California Polytechnic College in San Luis Obispo.

 

Please let me know if you have any questions. I enjoyed your website.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Amy Thomson

Teacher

Davis School for Independent Study

 

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Here are some comments regarding Ms. Thomson's email:

 

We really appreciated how supportive Ms. Thomson was of our project and also how much time and consideration she put into providing us with contacts in the community.  We plan to speak with the experts she mentioned as we continue trying to help bee populations going forward.  

 

When we were doing our research for this project, we found many different techniques that have been tried in order to get rid of Varroa destructor mites.  When we looked further into the pollen traps that Ms. Thomson mentions in her email, we found that pollen traps are used by beekeepers to collect some of the pollen that bees bring to the hive, so that they can sell it.  The bees pass through mesh wire that scrapes off some of their collected pollen.  Beekeepers noticed that some mites also were removed during this process.  However, like many other attempts at getting rid of the mite, this method only has been partly effective, as the mite removal is slow enough that mites still are able to reproduce in the hive.  

 

 

Task #3:  Based on what you have learned, explain why your problem is important to society as a whole and how your solution might change people's lives or the environment in which they live.

 

Varroa destructor mite prevention is critical for all humans!  Different crops requiring bee pollination are grown in different climates all around the world, and these crops are eaten by people all around the world.  If mites keep spreading and reproducing so rapidly without an effective, manageable mite control method, then honey bee populations will continue to drop dramatically.  Crops relying on pollination will fail or at least decrease in production amount rapidly.

 

As shown by Figure 1 below, the honeybee population has been dramatically declining.  If it keeps up like it is now, farmers, workers, buyers, sellers, and citizens like all of us will be affected by the decline.  In Figure 2, five of many of the honeybee-dependent crops are listed with the percent of the crop that is bee-dependent.  So without bees, there would be very little of each crop!  Figure 3 shows how much money each of these crops added to the U.S. economy between 1996 and 1998.  This means that this is how much money would be lost in the economy without bees for each crop; farmers, grocers, factory workers and others would lose that much money.  As you can see from the graphs and table below, we all would be affected by the problems for the agricultural industry and by not being able to have the produce and nuts that we like.  We need to take action now to prevent colony collapse disorder by stopping pesticides, leaving enough foraging habitat for bees instead of large monocultures, and finding ways to keep the Varroa destructor mites off the bees!

 

As mentioned in more detail in Component 1, Task 1, providing a long-term solution to the problem of mites in honey bee colonies would keep nutritious and tasty fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds coming into our kitchens.  The health and variety of foods in society would be greatly reduced if we didn't have enough bees to pollinate our plants.  So, if our design for hive entrances could reduce the numbers of mites entering colonies, then bees would have a better chance of thriving, reproducing more, and pollinating our crops!