Social Distancing before it was ‘trendy’...?
Researchers at UCL and the University of Sassari, Italy recently published an research and articles on how honey bees increase social distancing when their hives are infected with parasites. The parasite in question is the “Varroa Destructor” and is enemy #1 to bees. Once infected, viruses are passed throughout the colony and during the winter months the hive will weaken and ‘collapse’.
The research offers evidence that the drivers for infection often are caused from the older bees – whose primary purpose is to forage - bringing nectar, pollen and water into the hive. The Varroa mite can hitch a ride, enter the hive and once inside spread throughout causing serious damage.
Once infected the bees will alter a few of their behaviors such as:
Waggle Dances: when forage bees find good sources of nectar, pollen and water they will come back to the hive and perform a waggle dance. This dance will give all the other bees ‘GPS Coordinates’ based on the hives location to the resource.
Grooming: Bees groom and feed younger bees, and once the hive becomes infected the bees will only allow certain bees to continue this to mitigate risk.
If you are interested and want to learn more on this subject simply Google “bees + social distancing” or you can view this article from SciTechDaily:
https://scitechdaily.com/honeybees-use-social-distancing-to-protect-themselves-from-parasites/