‘We’re losing bees every winter’: Bee expert warns of tiny parasite killing 40% of colonies

World bee experts gathered in Othello to discuss a historic die-off during the winter of 2024, consulting with one another to understand why bees are dying at alarming rates.

Jerry Hayes, editor of The Bee Culture, joined “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio to explain the drastic consequences the bee die-off could have on the U.S. food supply, and how a tiny parasite has been the cause of roughly 40% of honey bee colonies dying each winter.

“It’s not only a U.S. colony die-off, but it’s all the other countries too,” Hayes said. “We know what it is for the most part. It’s a parasite called the Varroa destructor mite, an invasive mite from Asia. If you make a fist and put it on your body, and you are a honeybee, that is how large that parasite is to a honeybee’s body. It’s feeding on it like a tick or a flea, and introducing viruses and causing immunosuppression.

“Our biggest problem is, how do you control this mite?” he continued. “How do you sample for it, you know, trying to kill basically a bug on a bug without hurting the bug is really, really hard.”

Killing the parasite without harming the bee remains the central challenge

Hayes commended the organizers of the international conference, Dr. Priyadarshini Chakrabarti Basu and the Washington State University Honey Bees and Pollinators Program, noting the conference drew people from South America, Europe, Canada, and the U.S. to create a combined action plan.

“Unfortunately, they all have these mites,” Hayes said. “If you can visualize a honey bee and then a mite, that is hiding in between their abdominal segments, chewing through the tissue and feeding on fat bodies, and causing weakness in those bees. Putting a pesticide in a colony to kill a little bug on a big bug, you have collateral damage. We have a struggle going on here.

“We’re losing bees every winter in that 40% range,” he continued. “Years ago, if you lost 10% of your colonies, that was a big deal. Now, these commercial beekeepers are losing so many colonies that other organizations are looking for self-pollinating plants or different kinds of bees. This is a big deal.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3