The dream of a long-haired hippie mushroom could help save the bees of the world

SEATTLE – The epiphany that mushrooms could help save the sick bee colonies of the world hit Paul Stamets while he was in bed.

"I love waking dreams," he said. "This is the moment when you come back to consciousness."

Years ago, in 1984, Stamets had noticed a "continuous bee convoy" moving from a parcel of mushrooms that he was growing to and from his hives. The bees have actually moved wood chips to access the mycelium of its mushroom, branched fibers of mushrooms that look like cobwebs.

"I could see them sipping droplets from the mycelium," he said. They were looking for his sugar, he thought.

Decades later, he and a friend began a conversation about the collapse of the bee colony that left Stamets, the owner of a mushroom mercantile, perplexed about a problem. Bees around the world are disappearing at an alarming rate. Parasites such as dust mites, fast-spreading viruses, agricultural chemicals and lack of fodder surface have stressed and threatened wild and commercial bees.

Waking up one morning: "I've connected the dots," he says. "The mycelium has sugars and antiviral properties," he said. What if it was not just sugar that was useful to the bees that feed the mushrooms so long ago?

In a study published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, Stamets turned intuition into reality. The document describes how bees have shown a remarkable reduction in the presence of parasitic mite-associated viruses that have been attacking and infecting bee colonies for decades, provided they consume a small amount of their mushroom mycelium extract.

In the late 1980s, tiny Varroa mites began to spread in bee colonies in the United States. Mites – which are parasites and can infect bees with viruses – proliferate easily and cause colony collapse in just a few years.

Over time, colonies became increasingly vulnerable and viruses became the main threat to pollinators important to the crops on which people depend.

"We think that's because viruses have evolved and become pathogenic and virulent," said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, professor of entomology at the University of Maryland, who was not involved in mycelium research. "Varroa viruses kill most colonies in the country."

He compared the mites to dirty hypodermic needles; mites are capable of transmitting bee viruses to bees.

The only practical solution to date has been to maintain the number of varroa mites in hives "within manageable populations".

Stamet's idea of ​​beekeeping mycelium could give beekeepers a powerful new weapon.

At first, mushrooms were hard to sell.

When Stamets, whose fascination with mushrooms began with the "magic mushrooms" while he was a "long-haired hippie" at Evergreen State College, began calling on scientists, some made fun of him.

"I do not have time for that. You seem a little crazy. I'll go, "recalls a California researcher. "It was never good to start a conversation with scientists that you do not know to say:" I had a dream. "

However, when Steve Sheppard, professor of entomology at Washington State University, received a call from Stamets in 2014, he listened.

Sheppard has heard a lot of crazy ideas to save bees over the years, like harnessing static electricity to stick bees with small polystyrene foam balls coated with anti-mite chemicals. Stamets' speech was different: he had data to support his claims about the antiviral properties of the mycelium and his company, Fungi Perfecti, could produce it in bulk. "I had a compelling reason to look further," Sheppard said.

With other researchers, the unlikely pair has resulted in research that opens promising and previously unknown doors in the fight against the collapse of bee colonies.

"It's an innovative approach," vanEngelsdorp said. "No scientist believes that there is a silver bullet for bee health. There are too many things going on. … it's a great first step. "

To test the Stamets theory, the researchers performed two experiments: they separated two groups of bees exposed to mites in cages, feeding one group of sugar syrup with a mushroom additive and the other a syrup. without additives. They also tested the field extract in small bee colonies operating near WSU.

For several strains of virus, the extract "reduces the virus to almost nothing," said Brandon Hopkins, an assistant research professor at WSU, another author of the paper.

The promising results opened the door to new surveys.

Researchers are still trying to understand how the mushroom extract works. The compound could strengthen the immune system of bees and make them more resistant to the virus. Or the compound could target the viruses themselves.

"We do not know what is causing the reduction. It's kind of our next step, "said Sheppard.

Since the extract can be added to syrups that commercial beekeepers routinely use, researchers say it could be a practical solution that can evolve rapidly.

For now, they are doing more research. On Wednesday, Hopkins and Sheppard spent the day setting up experiments in more than 300 commercial colonies in Oregon.

Meanwhile, Stamets has designed a 3D printable feeder that provides an extract of mycelia to wild bees. He plans to launch the product and an extract-subscription service to the public next year.

Stamets said he hoped his mushroom extract could prevent the crisis of a world without many of his creatures, including bees. He is worried about the speed with which species are disappearing.

"Biodiversity loss has ramifications that affect the entire food web," he said, comparing each species to parts of an aircraft that keep the Earth united until they do not do it.

"What rivet will we lose that we will have a catastrophic failure? I think the rivet will lose the bees, "he said. "More than a third of our food supply depends on bees."