[ad_1]
While bee populations have declined in different parts of the world due to the collapse of a colony, a mushroom retailer would have come up with its own home remedy to remedy the situation , a product he claims that he first came to him in a dream.
Speaking to Seattle weather Earlier in the week, Paul Stamets explained how, for the first time, he understood that mushrooms could help prevent the collapse of colonies in 1984 when he had spotted an important and steady flow of flowers. Bees flying from its mushroom fields to its hives. Bees transported woodchips in order to gain access to mycelia of fungi, or vegetative filaments. It is there that Stamets remembered having seen the bees "sipping the droplets" of the mycelium, probably for the sugar that they contain.
It was only a few decades later that everything started to set up for Stamets, who at the time was baffled by the problem of colony collapse and the dwindling number of settlements. Wild and commercial bees around the world, pesticides, viruses and other factors.
"I've connected the dots," Stamets said, recalling the "waking dream" that he had had just before proposing his solution.
"Mycelium has sugars and antiviral properties. What if it was not just sugar that was useful to these mushroom sucking bees so long ago? "
Thanks to Professor Steve Sheppard of Entomology of Washington State University, Stamets was able to transform his achievement into scientific research. In a study published Thursday in the journal Scientific reportsSheppard and a team of researchers explained how Stamets' fungus additive, mycelium, was able to reduce the presence of certain viruses in bees that had been given small doses of the substance. These viruses are associated with Varroa parasitic mites, causing most of the collapse of the colony that has plagued bee populations since the late 1980s.
The last hope in the fight for the preservation of bees? Mushrooms https://t.co/SaZZgwrFoM pic.twitter.com/UG1471plDK
– Newsweek (@Newsweek) October 7, 2018
A report from Newsweek explained the methods used by Sheppard and his colleagues, noting that the team had started by testing two groups of bees that had been exposed to Varroa. The first group received a mixture of sugar and mushroom extract Stamets, while the second group received only sugar. According to the study's co-author, Brandon Hopkins, research assistant at the WSU, the additive "reduced the virus to almost nothing" in many strains tested.
Although the Stamets mushroom extract has shown a lot of promise when tested, more research is needed before you can use your homemade substance to save bee populations. According to Seattle weather, the reason why the bees have benefited from this extract has not been determined yet, because the researchers think that this could be either because it enhances the immune system of bees, or because the additive acts directly against the virus.
For now, further tests are underway as Stamets would have designed a 3D printable feeder that could distribute the mushroom mycelium extract to wild bees. If all goes well, Stamets plans to make its solution available to the public via a "subscription extraction service" during the year 2019.
[ad_2]
Source link
