USDA research points to viruses spread by pesticide-resistant mites, indicating a worrying trend
U.S. beekeepers had a disastrous winter. Between June 2024 and January 2025, a full 62% of commercial honey bee colonies in the United States died, according to an extensive survey. It was the largest die-off on record, coming on the heels of a 55% die-off the previous winter.
As soon as scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) caught wind of the record-breaking die-offs, they sprang into action—but their efforts were slowed by a series of federal funding cuts and layoffs by President Donald Trump’s administration. Now, 6 months later, USDA scientists have finally identified a culprit.
According to a preprint posted to the bioRxiv server this month, nearly all the dead colonies tested positive for bee viruses spread by parasitic mites. Alarmingly, every single one of the mites the researchers screened was resistant to amitraz, the only viable mite-specific pesticide—or miticide—of its kind left in humans’ arsenal.
It should be noted that most wasps are vital pollinators
Are red wasps, yellow jackets and whatever those black ones with green stripes? The red wasps are not as aggressive as yellow jackets. Not sure about the green on black ones, they’ve only shown themselves to me recently and I’m not trying to get close enough to fafo.
Isn’t that only because other species have dies off and they filled the void?
Nope, there are thousands of native wasp species in North America. Most of them are small, have no stinger, and are vegetarian. You might glance at them and think they’re flies. There are tens of thousands of plant species that rely on them for pollination.
Honey bees, on the other hand, are actually invasive in North America after they were imported from Europe.
Wasps are super important, besides the direct pollinators there are those that parasitize various caterpillars, including invasive ones. I do as much as possible to make wasps at home in my area.