Book Review – The Sting of the Wild by Justin O. Schmidt by Vishy’s Blog

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book review, entomology, stinging insects

‘The Sting of the Wild‘ is about stinging insects. In the first part of the book which runs into five chapters, Schmidt gives us an introduction to stinging insects and talks about how their stinging capability might have evolved from an evolutionary perspective. In the second part of the book, Schmidt focuses on individual insects, talks about their life histories and their lifestyles, their relationships with humans and other animals from the animal kingdom, how they use their sting and how sharp and painful their sting can be. He creates a four-level sting-pain scale and tries to rate each insect’s sting using this scale. Some of the insects which are featured in the second part of the book are sweat bees, ants of different types including fireants, harvester ants and bullet ants, wasps of different types including yellow jackets, tarantula hawks, mud daubers and velvet ants, and of course everyone’s favourite, the honey bee.

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Read the full article here: Book Review – The Sting of the Wild by Justin O. Schmidt — Vishy’s Blog

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Werewolves Not Vampires by The Prospect of Bees

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entomology, varroa, varroa destructor, varroa mites

Oh, had we but seen this video a few days earlier, in time for Halloween! A three-minute thesis competition is a contest for PhD students in which they condense their thesis into a three minute presentation comprehensible to an intelligent audience lacking any background in the research area. Doctoral candidate Samuel Ramsey was the winner […]

Read the complete article at: Werewolves Not Vampires — The Prospect of Bees

Former Coal Miners In Southern West Virginia Spent Their Summer Learning How To Keep Bees Thanks To UD’s Debbie Delaney by Bee Culture Magazine

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ecology, entomology, environmental ecology, sustainability, West Virginia

Debbie Delaney

 

Ed. Note: What’s amazing, at least to me, isn’t so much the shift from coal mining to beekeeping. Rather it’s the reversal of the destruction that had resulted from mining. The return of bees to these areas actually changes the land. The bees support the flora which, in turn, supports various species of animals and other pollinators. A transformation begins to take place with the assistance of the honey bees.

Former coal miners or citizens whose lives have been shaped by the coal mining industry in southern West Virginia spent their summer learning how to establish and operate bee colonies thanks to help from the University of Delaware’s Debbie Delaney.

Delaney, associate professor of entomology in UD’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, spent her summer in Summers County working as a consultant through Appalachian Headwaters which is a non-profit organization that formed the Appalachian Beekeeping Collective. Delaney said that the goal was to help get the socioeconomic growth program up and running for displaced miners in 14 counties in southern West Virginia.

“We got about 500 nucleus colonies or nucs, which are small colonies of bees, and a queen and all summer we’ve been erecting bear fences and creating bee yards so we can grow the colonies over the season and get them through the winter,” said Delaney.

Beginning next year, local partners will come on board and get hives which will be a way for them to generate income.

Delaney said that how much income will vary depending on what kind of forage is available during that time of year—and that since the initial installation began after foraging season, they have had to feed the bees a lot to get them up to weight to make it through winter.

Read the full article here: CATCH THE BUZZ – Former Coal Miners In Southern West Virginia Spent Their Summer Learning How To Keep Bees Thanks To UD’s Debbie Delaney — Bee Culture