It’s OK to love all the bees (the honey bees, too)

[Catherine Edwards]

It’s OK to love all the bees (the honey bees, too) https://share.google/GYhEc5hBi86j1c4xG 

Catherine Edwards

(510)421-7206

[Elinor N. LEVINE]

Thank you for sending this. I often hear people say honey bees out compete native bees. This shows that’s not true.

Elinor

On Apr 10, 2026, at 12:58 PM, Catherine Edwards <catherine...@gmail.com> wrote:



It’s OK to love all the bees (the honey bees, too) https://share.google/GYhEc5hBi86j1c4xG 

Catherine Edwards

(510)421-7206

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[Bay Area Beeks]

1) Article says there's little studies of Honeybee vs Native Bees so there's no definitive answer to whether or not Honeybees out compete native bees.  We know a lot about honeybees compared to what little we know about native bees.  

2) When colonists brought European honeybees to the Americas, they also started to terraform the Americas to resemble the European landscape.  Current landscape in the Americas now favors European honeybees vs native bees.

3) A hive of 10K plus of honeybees has a much better chance of overcoming pesticides compared to solitary bees or bees in smaller communities.  Simply by the numbers, honeybee hives have built in advantages compared to native bees.

4) Honeybees are generalist and opportunistic whereas many native bees are very picky eaters and heavily dependent on a few plants.  This means that honeybees are much more adaptable to various different landscapes whereas native bees can only survive in areas where their native forage is still available.  

5) European Honeybees are considered an invasive species yet they are the ones that FDA protects as they are vital to our current food pyramid based on large scale, mono-crop industrialized, European based SAD (Standard American Diet).   

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[Gerald Przybylski]

We had a Zoom program on the topic
see
https://www.alamedabees.org/meeting-presentation-materials/presentation-by-andony-melathopoulos-september-16-2025/
(there is a new member password - which is published in the latest newsletter.) 

j

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[MLuskin]

Has anyone ever studied whether varroa attacks native bees?

Merry Luskin, Oakland CA 

Reference librarian 

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[Paula Breen]

Hi Merry,

My understanding is that sometimes Varroa can hop on a native bee that was left on a flower by a honeybee. However, mites require the large brood nest of honeybees in order to complete their life cycle, so there is no major risk to native bees from Varroa in that sense. Those little solitary nests are of no use to the mites. I think there is some data to suggest that there could be some virus transmission to native bees, but I’m not really sure about that. I did listen to one talk, I forget where, and the scientist presenting stated that bumblebees and other natives have their own virus issues and at that time he said that the transmission of honeybee viruses to native bees was not an issue. This was a few years back, and there may be more current information.

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[real...@aol.com]

Which native bee ? As what has been done to “native” American bee surpass what has been done to American Indian . 

Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS

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[Jerry Przybylski]

This is a 35 year old article 

Think about how Varroa propagate. 

The colony must raise generations of pupa. 

The mite must parasitize a cell just before it is capped, then emerge and parasitize another. 

The duration of the capping must be longer than a certain minimum to raise some successful offspring. 

So doesn’t work for solitary bees. 

Does work for bumblebees. 

Can it work for YJs?  I haven’t heard of it. 

-- Siri apologizes 4 autocomplete errors...

On Apr 16, 2026, at 8:40 AM, 'MLuskin' via The Alameda County Beekeepers Association <the-alameda-county-b...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



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[Jim Veitch]

There is no literature that Varroa destructor (aka jacobsoni) successfully infests bumblebees (e.g. see the introduction https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0005772X.1990.11099048 where they state it is generally believed Varroa reproduction is confined to Apis mellifera and Apis cerana).

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[Gerald Przybylski]

Varroa may jump from flowers, where they do park themselves waiting for another host,  to bumblebees, but once they get to the bumblebee nest they probably can't reproduce.
The problem with "infesting" bumblebees is that, even if Varroa reproduce in workers,  once the bumbles raise their queens, the season is over.  
A Varroa hitchhiking on a bumblebee queen will most likely die before the queen starts a nest the next year. 
Do I get credit for being partly wrong? :-)

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