SEATTLE—The epiphany that mushrooms could help save the world’s ailing bee colonies struck Paul Stamets while he was in bed. The bees actually moved wood chips to access his mushroom’s mycelium, the branching fibres of fungus that look like cobwebs. Parasites like mites, fast-spreading viruses, agricultural chemicals and lack of forage area have stressed and threatened wild and commercial bees alike. In the late 1980s, tiny Varroa mites began to spread through bee colonies in the United States. The mites —which are parasites and can infect bees with viruses —proliferate easily and cause colony collapse in just years.

Source: thestar October 06, 2018 18:11 UTC