Posts Tagged ‘Varroa Mites’

Bees are very essential insects because worldwide, they provide pollination service which is very important to agriculture and biodiversity conservation.  Aside pollination, bees also provide hive products which are nutritious and medicinal such as honey, royal jelly, beebread, propolis, wax and many more.  Most people however perceive all bees to be stinging and dangerous. This is entirely not the case because there are some bees which are harmless and very friendly to the extent that they could be kept on porches, study rooms, etc.  These bees are known as Stingless Bees.

Stingless bees also known as Meliponines are a group of bees with non-functional stings.  They are tropical bees of African origin which have dispersed to other tropical and sub-tropical parts of the world.  There are about 500 species of stingless bees, and they are the only highly social bees aside the common honeybees (Apis mellifera L.).  Stingless bees usually live in permanent colonies that consist of the queen and the drone as the reproductives and hundreds or thousands of workers (depending on the species).

The colonies are found in all forms of nest with the most common being in tree cavities. A few species however build underground nests and some also build exposed nests surrounded by hard and brittle layers, hanging over tree branches in the air.  The bees use all forms of materials including resin, sand particles, excrement, etc in building their nests, which are waterproof and highly resistant to predators.

Even though stingless bees have non-functional stings, they have various and efficient means of defence within and without their nests.  Some species adopt aggressive ways of external defence like biting, releasing caustic mandibular secretions, unpleasant oduors and irritating by crawling into eyes and ears of intruders.  The most external tactic of defence of the bees is making their nests invisible.  Internally stingless bees use a substance known as propolis to embalm intruders.

Stingless bees and pollination

The transfer of pollen grains to the stigma of flowers thus pollination is very crucial for plant reproduction and therefore, seed and fruit production.  Plants depend on agents called pollinators to effect pollination.  Bees constitute the principal pollinators, ensuring the survival of many plant species including plants that provide food security to innumerable rural households.

Most species of stingless bees exhibit some characteristics that enhance their potential as pollinators.  The bees are polylectic or generalist flower visitors, visiting and adapting to a broad range of plant species.  They also demonstrate floral constancy whereby the workers visit only one plant species on a single trip.  Floral constancy is linked with pollinator efficiency because the collection and deposition of a mixture of pollen from two or more plant species tends to contaminate the stigma with the wrong pollen.

Meliponiculture (stingless beekeeping)

Transferring stingless bee colonies into artificial nests boosts the potential of the bees for crop pollination because the hives could be transported where and when needed for pollination.  Stingless bees were kept by man centuries ago but unlike Central and South America and parts of Asia, the practice did not evolve in Africa.  Currently in Africa, meliponiculture exists only in Tanzania and Angola on small to medium scale.  Stingless bee honey in Africa is mostly harvested destructively from feral colonies.

Stingless bee keeping has some advantages over honeybee keeping. For instance the colony could last permanently as long as no damaging disaster occurs, by replacing the old queen with a virgin queen.  Also stingless bee queens and workers generally tend to live longer that of the honeybees.  Aside the longevity of their colonies and castes, stingless bees have not yet been found to be affected by the disease and the Varroa mite problems that are plaguing the honeybee keeping industry.  In addition stingless bees do not sting making them the golden and friendliest bees of the world. The stingless attribute also makes them harmless to man and therefore easy to handle and manage. This means that stingless bees could be kept as close as possible to our homes, on the porches, backyard gardens, and study rooms etc as pets. Thus stingless bees are the only pets that provide additional benefits of pollination, honey and other hive products to enjoy.

Stingless bee hive products

The hive products of Stingless just as that of the common honeybees include honey, propolis, pollen (beebread) and wax.  The hive products, some of which have antioxidant, antimicrobial and antifungal properties have been used in the food and cosmetic industries as well as in medicine.  Stingless bee honey has a higher medicinal value than that of A. mellifera.  It is either taken in its pure form or as a component in both in traditional (including herbal extracts especially in Africa) or conventional medicines.

Threats to stingless bees

In recent times bee population densities are declining below points of sustaining pollination services in both agro and natural ecosystems.  This decline is as a result of habitat loss, land management practices, agricultural and industrial chemicals among others.  Most feral bees and for that matter stingless bees require safe and undisturbed habitats for nesting and foraging.  The elimination of these resources by lumber exploitation, clearing of natural vegetation, wild bushfires, land degradation, literally starve and kill the bees. 

Most pesticides and other chemicals used in agriculture also kill bees directly, decreasing their populations significantly.  Stingless bees are particularly affected by these threats especially in Africa where meliponiculture is virtually non-existent.  This is further exacerbated by the destructive harvesting of the stingless bee honey from the wild colonies.

There is the need for more research and education on stingless bees, their importance and the need for meliponiculture as means of conserving this very important resource; the stingless bees.