Lab error paves the way for potential breakthrough in storage of leafcutter bees

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Published: January 23, 2013

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Fluctuation Raising the temperature for an hour a day in cold storage boosts survival prospects

Scientists may have found a way to increase the shelf life of leafcutter bees, even if they didn’t intend to.

“Honestly, we misprogramed an incubator and blundered into it,” said Joseph Rinehart, a USDA research biologist at the Red River Valley Agricultural Research Center in Fargo, N.D.

After mistakenly programming a daily hour-long increase in temperature, the researchers discovered the leafcutter bees were better able to withstand cold storage for longer periods of time.

More research is required to find out what exactly is taking place, but the researchers have been able to successfully keep leafcutter bees in storage for nearly two years, Rinehart said at a recent meeting of the Manitoba Forage Seed Association in Winnipeg.

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“The ultimate goal is to get it so that you can use the bees for either this year, or next year, in the alfalfa field,” said Rinehart. “We’re very close to that.”

Early crops that make use of leafcutter bees, such as onion seed, could also benefit by a greater ability to control the time of emergence.

“It looks like your table scraps — the bees that didn’t actually get used in the alfalfa field this year — can be used next year with fluctuating thermal regime,” he said.

Longer storage periods would also make the transportation of bees, especially over long distances, more feasible, Rinehart said.

But exactly how this technology will make the leap from the lab to the farm still has yet to be nailed down.

The researcher notes he has the luxury of storing his bees “almost individually,” allowing precise temperature changes and easy airflow.

Most producers store their bees in bulk, which makes it a challenge to do what Rinehart does — raise the storage temperature from 6 C to 20 C before returning it back to 6 C an hour later.

The researcher said engineers are working on that problem, as are some producers, but that now isn’t the time to go in whole hog.

“I’m always nervous when someone else is going to bet their money on my idea, so I’m suggesting we take it slow,” Rinehart said.

More research needs to be done on the quality of bee produced by this method as well, he said.

“If they come out, but they are not reproductively viable that would suck, so we’re working on that to make sure all our bases are covered before we make suggestions to anybody,” he stressed.

That being said, if you have a couple of extra gallons of bees at the end of the summer “you might give it a try,” he added.

About the author

Shannon VanRaes

Reporter

Shannon VanRaes is a journalist and photojournalist with the Manitoba Co-operator. She has previously reported for the the Metros, Winnipeg Sun, Outwords Magazine and the Portage Daily Graphic.

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