Yves Le Conte

Threats to bees are twofold, in France and everywhere else. They result both from diseases, and from the environment. In terms of diseases, the parasitic Varroa mite injects and multiplies viruses, including the most lethal of all, called the deformed wings virus, which curtails the bees’ ability to fly and feed themselves. Beekeepers have to chemically treat hives so that bees can survive the Varroa parasite, and only a few scattered resistant bee colonies have been identified at the global scale. One of the reasons that explains why honey bees are so vulnerable to Varroa is because they have been selected for their peaceful nature and ability to produce abundant quantities of honey, and intensive selection in bees as in cows lowers genetic diversity and so the ability to survive the different stress.

The second most important threat is pesticides, in particular neonicotinoids [a class of neuro-active insecticides chemically similar to nicotine and the world’s most widely used insecticides]. Dozens of scientific papers have rung the alarm, shown have bad they are, and as a consequence they are being taken out of the market across the EU. Scientists of my research unit, Abeilles & Environment, published a paper in the journal Science in 2012 that showed that when bees enter in contact with this chemical, they become confused and struggle to find their hive. This study made a lot of noise, and new policies followed. However, pesticides remain a massive issue: scientists have shown that they can be found everywhere in nature, and not only in the fruits and vegetable that we consume. When bees pollinate wildflowers, they can gather pollen and be intoxicated.

What we are also looking at now is how nasty the cocktail of various pesticides can be, because bees’ pollen can contain traces of up to 12 different molecules. In Europe, where intensive agriculture is expanding, where each meter square is increasingly exploited by massive machines and where hedges have been uprooted, less space and food are available for bees. Even in spring, on occasion, bees can go hungry, which makes them vulnerable and more prone to diseases.

In Avignon [a commune in southeastern France when his lab is located], we had to supplement feed our hives because we haven’t had very good weather this year, but everywhere else in France the harvest has been fantastic because this spring weather has been great. It rained enough, but not too much. As flowers produce nectar, bees delve in and suck the nectar in the flower and transform it into honey. If it is too dry, flowers don’t produce nectar, and the honey harvest will be much reduced.