In recent years, there has been considerable buzz about the health of one small insect — the honey bee.  No one is sure why there is an increase in their premature deaths.
Despite the various reasons for decline, one thing is certain, says Robert Danka, research leader at the USDA Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Laboratory in Baton Rouge:  Whatever the root cause or causes, the short-term annual loss of honey bee colonies is a problem for beekeepers.
Danka said beekeepers in the past would lose roughly 10 to 15 percent of their colonies annually, a loss that was sustainable. However, they are presently losing twice colonies at twice that rate. 
“[Beekeepers] are working harder just to keep the numbers up,” Danka said. “…Some bee colonies die every year. But 10 percent is one thing. Thirty or 40 percent is something different.”
Even with the decline, which first became an issue 10 years ago, there has not been a decrease in production – as yet – he notes.
Danka said several causes, or stressors, threaten honeybee health. These include pests, parasites, pathogens, pesticides, habitat loss and overworked bees.
In the Baton Rouge area, he noted, the expanse of student housing has contributed to the bees’ habitat loss. The land that’s now dedicated to apartment complexes The Woodlands and The Cottages used to house bees.
Danka said honeybees have faced a variety of pests throughout the years, but the Varroa mite, from the far east of Asia, is threatening colonies of a European species of honeybee around the world, except in Australia. These particular honeybees are present at the USDA research facility here. The mite, which will only last for a few days if not on a honeybee, reproduces during a bee’s formation process.
While the federal facility engages in a range of tasks, Danka said they have been identifying characteristics of mite-resistant bees and breeding bees for resistance to the parasitic mites for the past 20 years.  
However, Danka and Kristen Healy, an assistant professor of medical entomology at Louisiana State University, believe Louisiana has fared relatively well in terms of the overall honeybee decline. 
Healy listed temperature as another honey bee stressor, noting that these bees typically don’t do well in cooler climates.  Louisiana’s warmer year-round climate is more suitable.
Like Danka, Healy said it’s likely multiple factors contribute to decline instead of one root cause.
“Think about how a human deals with stress,” Healy said. “You pile so many stressors onto an individual that it compounds the effects of each one of those stresses.”
Healy, along with several others at the university, is studying the effects of pesticides on bees, primarily the risk factors of toxicity and exposure.
While she said some pesticides are worse than others, the goal is releasing the pesticides at night when bees are back in their hives.
“Generally, beekeepers have pretty close contact with their bees,” Healy said. “…[With pesticides], it tends to be more acute mortality so you’ll see all of sudden a lot of dead bees in front of a hive.”
Chris Frink, an avid beekeeper and president of the Capital Area Beekeeping Club in Baton Rouge, currently has three honeybee hives in his backyard.
Frink said he lost two colonies during the summer but attributed that to the excessive rain and wet weather.
“[The weather] kept them from flying and might have made it easier for pests to flourish,” he said.
Club meetings include discussions on how to test for Varroa mites and treatment and how to keep colonies healthy, he said.   
“We’re not rescuing bees from extinction by getting backyard beekeepers going,” Frink said, “but we are raising awareness about the importance of bees to our food system, gardens and yards.”