After a 12-hour airplane ride, Caron's journey began at the headwaters of Bolivia's Amazonian rivers. There, he deliberately antagonized killer bees by rattling a metal ball in front of them. Then he counted the number of sting marks on his gloved arm. In such lowland tropics, he says, "All the bad things you've heard about killer bees are true."
Caron then traveled to cooler regions of Bolivia. At 12,000 feet above sea level, in the capital city of La Paz, cooler weather seems to help killer bees chill out, he reports. Bee wax melts at 144 degrees Fahrenheit, Caron says, and bees in tropical regions may perceive any disturbance as potentially life-threatening.
Surprisingly, the varroa mite lives on killer bees, too, but "doesn't seem to cause any problems in tropical regions," Caron says. He's quick to caution, however, that intentionally importing killer bees to Delaware or any other cool-weather regions would be "an extremely bad idea."
Despite deadly mites, killer bees and an 18 percent drop in honey sales over the past 15 years, a dwindling but dedicated population of U.S. beekeepers have continued to "go for the gold," Caron says. His research has shown that the price tag on a jar of honey can vary dramatically along the same stretch of road, but it's still a bargain. Priced at 0.19 cents per pound in 1937, U.S. honey now averages about $2.00 per pound, he reports.
"Honey isn't essential for the human diet," Caron says, "but most of us love that sweet taste. And, honeybees are a critical species for pollinating food and decorative plants. We need to do what we can to make sure they continue to thrive."
CARON'S WEB PAGE: http://copland.udel.edu/~dmcaron/
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Contact: Ginger Pinholster
gingpin@udel.edu
302-831-6408
University of Delaware
1-Jul-1998