Credit FILE PHOTO: Seth Tackett / WTIU
Indiana University researchers have found a helpful microbe in the stomachs of queen bees and their larvae that can fight deadly funguses. Researchers hope this discovery will eventually lead to medicine that can protect the honey bees that Indiana farmers rely on.
More than 40 percent of honey bee colonies in the U.S. die every year threatening the nation’s food security. The queen is important to the colony s survival.
IU graduate student Delaney Miller is the lead author of the study. She said researchers are now looking to find the exact molecule in the microbe that fights fungal diseases. This discovery could eventually lead to a medicine that can help worker bees or other innovations.
Bill Would Change Fines For Misusing Pesticides, Including Dicamba
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Article origination IPBS-RJC
Dicamba can drift off of one soybean field that is resistant to the herbicide and damage a non-resistant field nearby.
FILE PHOTO: Seth Tackett/WTIU News
A state Senate bill aims to crack down on farmers and others who deliberately misuse pesticides like dicamba while giving people with minor pesticide violations a break. The bill passed unanimously in a Senate committee on Monday.
The legislation authored by Sen. Jean Leising (R-Oldenburg) was crafted in collaboration with several different industries after efforts to increase pesticide fines failed last year. The Environmental Protection Agency defines a pesticide as anything used to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate pests that includes herbicides.