Mushroom Extract Can Help Save Bees | MNN

Over the last decade, beekeepers have suffered considerable losses in colonies, with average bee losses greater than 30%. The causes range from pollution to habitat loss to viruses transmitted by parasites.

It is on the last of these causes that the search may have found some hope. Scientists may have discovered a way to fight viruses. It only took a few mushrooms and the dream of a long-haired hippie.

The mushroom extract solution

In 1984, Paul Stamets, owner of a mushroom shopping center in Washington State, saw a "continuous bee convoy" moving between the mushrooms he was growing. In fact, bees move wood chips to access mushroom mycelium, branched fibers of mushrooms that look like cobwebs.

"I could see them sipping droplets coming out of the mycelium," he told the Seattle Times. This activity led him to wonder if mushrooms could save bees all over the world.

As the colony collapse became a widespread phenomenon, Stamets returned to this epiphany, thinking that it might help scientists find a way to keep the bees alive.

Fomes fomentarius mushrooms growing on a tree. The spongy material, tinder, can be used to help bees. (Photo: Jerzy Strzelecki / Wikimedia Commons)

It was a difficult sale.

"I do not have time for that, you seem crazy, I'll go," he recalls. "It's never been good to start a conversation with scientists that you do not know to say by saying," I had a dream. " "

Fortunately, not all of her conversations went that way. When Stamets contacted Steve Sheppard, professor of entomology at Washington State University in 2014, Sheppard was attentive. He had heard a lot of theories about saving bees, but Stamets' observations provided solid evidence that seemed worthwhile to be explored.

The results of this exploration, published in Nature Reports, revealed that a tiny amount of fungal mycelium extract from tinder fungi (Fomes fomentarius) and red reishi (Ganoderma resinaceum) had resulted in decreased presence of viruses associated with viruses associated with tiny Varroa mites. .

Antiviral bees

To test the mushroom hypothesis, Stamets, Sheppard and other researchers conducted two experiments. First, bees exposed to mites have been separated into two groups. One group had access to a sugar syrup with mushroom extract, while another group was not. The second experiment was to test the field extract in small colonies run by the University of Washington State.

In both experiments, honeybees receiving the mushroom extract exhibited a significant decrease in viruses.

One of the viruses, called deformed-wing virus (DWV), results in both smaller wings and shorter life for worker bees. The occurrences of DWV were 800 times fewer in the laboratory and 44 times more frequent in the field when they received tinder extracts. It is more difficult to control the experiments in the field, hence the differences. Another group of viruses, collectively called Lake Sinai Virus (LSV), exhibited a decrease in its number of occurrences 45,000 times when bees tested in the field received red reishi extracts – and this number did not. 39 is not a typo.

The studies were conducted over two months during the summer. Future studies with the extract will examine the results of colonies over a longer period, including in winter. Sheppard and other researchers are already preparing experiments in 300 commercial colonies in Oregon, reports the Seattle Times.

For its part, Stamets has designed a 3D printed feeder that provides the extract to wild bees. Next year, he intends to launch the charger with a subscription-based service for the extract, which he will sell via his website, Fungi Perfecti. The money he draws from it does not aim to make it rich.

"I'm not here for money," Stamets told Wired. "I walk in my conversation and I use my company to fund further research."

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The mushroom extract can help save the bees

Mushroom extracts have been proven to reduce the presence of bee-killing viruses.