{"id":218,"date":"2014-06-24T14:14:51","date_gmt":"2014-06-24T18:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/aphanotus\/?p=218"},"modified":"2019-09-03T11:34:45","modified_gmt":"2019-09-03T15:34:45","slug":"bees-in-our-backyard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/aphanotus\/2014\/06\/24\/bees-in-our-backyard\/","title":{"rendered":"Bees in our Backyard"},"content":{"rendered":"

What’s with the tents behind the baseball field?<\/p>\n

\"tent_small\"<\/a><\/p>\n

These tents contain several colonies of a native bumblebee,\u00a0Bombus impatiens<\/em>. These colonies are commercially available for large scale pollination. This summer our lab\u00a0is investigating the expression of antimicrobial peptides in bumblebees, under different pesticide exposures. With the decline of honeybee populations, bumblebees are increasingly important pollinators of crops and wild plants. However, there has been concern that certain pesticides, such as neonicotinoids, may have adverse affects on the immune response in bees.<\/p>\n

Our goal in this project is to sample bumblebees from a variety of wild and agricultural settings around Maine and to measure their parasite load and expression of antimicrobial peptides. These small proteins are an important part of the immune response in insects. These field surveys will be coupled with controlled experiments here at Colby, so that we can establish a baseline effect for these compounds on the bee’s immune function.<\/p>\n

So, you may wonder, do the tents pose a hazard?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Bumblebees are generally not aggressive, although they will defend their hive if it is disturbed. So, the easiest way to stay safe is to stay clear of the hives. If a bee of any kind flies by you, it’s always best to ignore it and calmly walk away. Don’t swat at it, since this will cause it to defend itself increasing its chance of\u00a0stinging.<\/p>\n

Maine\u00a0has a diversity of bumblebees, with 16\u00a0documented species. The most common species around Colby’s campus is\u00a0Bombus impatiens<\/em>. Therefore, the bumblebees housed in these tents are the same as many nesting throughout the woods and campus grounds.<\/p>\n

\"B_impatiens\"<\/p>\n

Please feel free to comment below or contact me by e-mail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Additional information:<\/p>\n

Colla, S., Richardson, L., and P. Williams. (2011). Bumble Bees of the Eastern United States. USDA Forest Service.\u00a0http:\/\/www.fs.fed.us\/wildflowers\/pollinators\/documents\/BumbleBeeGuideEast2011.pdf\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Treatment of bumble see stings and allergies. Koppert Biological Systems.\u00a0http:\/\/www.bumblebeestings.info<\/a><\/p>\n

McGarth, M. “Widespread impacts of neonicotinoids ‘impossible to deny'”. BBC News. 23 June 2014.\u00a0http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/science-environment-27980344<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What’s with the tents behind the baseball field? These tents contain several colonies of a native bumblebee,\u00a0Bombus impatiens. These colonies are commercially available for large scale pollination. This summer our lab\u00a0is investigating the expression of antimicrobial peptides in bumblebees, under… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5169,"featured_media":220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[634,17559,102],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/aphanotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/aphanotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/aphanotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/aphanotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/aphanotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/aphanotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/aphanotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions\/286"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/aphanotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/aphanotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/aphanotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/aphanotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}