There are around 20,000 bee species world-wide, the most well-known being the European honey bee that is now found everywhere in the world except Antarctica. Wild bees not only collect nectar and pollen, but also tree resin which they mix with wax to make a material called propolis. <\/strong>Their honey is antimicrobial, making it last forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Varroa mites, also known as Varroa destructor gain entry into a hive by hitching a ride on a bee\u2019s back. While on a bee, the mites wriggle in between the bee\u2019s protective plates and uses it\u2019s gnathosoma (mouth) to eat the bee\u2019s fat body. This lowers its immune defence. When the bee returns to the hive the Varroa mite sniffs out a bee larva and sneaks in right before the bees seal up the cell. It is here that the mite reproduces. The Varroa mite\u2019s first born is always a son and the rest are daughters. While in the cell the mother and her nymphs feed on the larva but don\u2019t kill it. The siblings mate with each other. Finally, the bee larva emerges, but it will have birth defects, like deformed wings, thanks to the mites. The new mites then start the cycle again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tracheal mites are mites that breed in a bee\u2019s trachea. They get here by going through the point where the wings of the bee meet the body. They mate with their own siblings while still inside the bee. If they breed in big enough numbers inside it, it can make it hard for the bee to breathe. It can disconnect the wings of the bees making it unable to fly, leaving them wandering around in the grass, or cause the bees to have a distended abdomen. They attack 1-2 day old bees and can also affect the queen bee. These mites feed on the bee\u2019s blood. You get rid of them by putting in a grease patty or menthol over the brood cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wild bees are extremely important for the environment, yet, they don\u2019t get nearly as much attention as the honey bees. As honey bees became more and more popular, competition continues to grow harder for the wild bees. There are around 20,000 species of bees found across the globe, most of which are solitary, like the blue-banded bee and the blue orchard bees, while other wild bees live in small hives, like bumble bees. Honey bee hives have 3,000-80,000 bees in them while most bumble bee hives have 50-400 bees on average. A lot of bee species, like Bombus affinis, Hylaeus hilaris and some species of bumble bees are endangered. It is getting harder and harder for bees to get enough food for them to feed their hive, or, if they are solitary, their young. In addition to this, when we take away their habitat it makes it harder for them to cross large areas of land, causing them to breed with close relatives, weakening their defence against pesticides, bacteria, viruses and mites and causing more birth defects. Honey bees get help from humans when their hive is attacked, but wild bees have to fight these pests themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Neonicotinoids are one of the most common insecticides used today. It not only kills unwanted pets, but also bees and other pollinators. When a bee comes in contact with neonicotinoids it affects the bee\u2019s flight speed and stamina, reduces taste sensitivity and makes it harder for bees to learn. All of these symptoms could end up putting the hive in risk of starvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is when all the worker bees in a honey bee hive either suddenly leave or suddenly die off, leaving plenty of food and some nurses with the queen. Scientists have found no single reason why this is happening and have decided that this must be for multiple reasons. This started happening in 2006 and only happens in honey bee hives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to try to help the best thing that you can do is plant flowers for them to feed on, especially native ones, seeing as the have evolved over many years with those flowers in abundance. You may also like to build a bee hotel for solitary bees to nest in. If you can, you may even like to buy a hive of native bees to help smaller species thrive in our ever-changing world because these little insects are something we cannot live without.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Bit About Bees There are around 20,000 bee species world-wide, the most well-known being the European honey bee that is now found everywhere in the world except Antarctica. Wild bees not only collect nectar and pollen, but also tree resin which they mix with wax to make a material called propolis. Their honey is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teamnite.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teamnite.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teamnite.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamnite.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamnite.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/teamnite.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":454,"href":"https:\/\/teamnite.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions\/454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamnite.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teamnite.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamnite.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamnite.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Varroa MitesTracheal <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Tracheal Mites<\/strong> (Acarapis Woodi)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Wild Bees<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Neonicotinoids <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Colony Collapse Disorder\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How We Can Help Bees<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n