New! American & European Foulbrood.(15min 32sec)

One of the last big flower shows each year is provided by the goldenrods.  They are all perennials with large clusters of small yellow flowers that appear from the end of summer until frost.  The leaves of goldenrods are simple, lance or egg shaped and usually have a toothed margin.   Most species propagate by a spreading root system in addition to seed.  They can be a troublesome addition to a wildflower garden for that reason.   They become more common in pastures under heavy grazing pressure and so are used as an indicator species by range managers. Just about every insect with an interest in flowers may by found on goldenrod in autumn.  The predators of those insects will be found there also.   Wheel bugs and flower crab spiders, in particular, like to lay in wait for prey on goldenrod clusters.  In the picture, a couple of blister beetles are nosing around amongst the blossoms, probably grazing on pollen.  Often the visiting insects will use the occasion to get acquainted with each other and breeding will be observed.   The yellow and black goldenrod soldier beetles will frequently be seen in pairs on goldenrod. Goldenrod gets mistakenly blamed for the agonies of hay fever sufferers in autumn.  It blooms at the same time as ragweeds (Ambrosia sp.), which are the real culprit.  Ragweeds are pollinated by the wind.  Using the wind to fertilize your flowers is a very chancy business.  Only by releasing billions of pollen grains into the wind can they ensure that some will find their way to the female flower of another ragweed plant and produce seed.  Because they are not pollinated by insects, ragweed does not need visually attractive flower parts.  They are an inconspicuous green color.  People suffering from allergies in September look for a flower to blame and goldenrod gets the rap because it is so visible and abundant.   The pollen grains of goldenrod, as is true of all insect-pollinated flowers, are comparatively fat and sticky so that they will adhere to visiting insects and be transferred by them to another flower.  In order for a person to be affected by goldenrod pollen, they would have to stick their nose right into the flower just like a bee would! Taken from:    http://www.gpnc.org/goldenro.htm

"The colony is willing to expend the energy and effort of its worker bees to collect these resins," says Dr. Michael Simone-Finstrom, a postdoctoral research scholar in NC State's Department of Entomology and lead author of a paper describing the research. "So, clearly this behavior has evolved because the benefit to the colony exceeds the cost."

Wild honey bees normally line their hives with propolis, a mixture of plant resins and wax that has antifungal and antibacterial properties. Domesticated honey bees also use propolis, to fill in cracks in their hives. However, researchers found that, when faced with a fungal threat, bees bring in significantly more propolis -- 45 percent more, on average. The bees also physically removed infected larvae that had been parasitized by the fungus and were being used to create fungal spores.

Researchers know propolis is an effective antifungal agent because they lined some hives with a propolis extract and found that the extract significantly reduced the rate of infection.

And apparently bees can sometimes distinguish harmful fungi from harmless ones, since colonies did not bring in increased amounts of propolis when infected with harmless fungal species. Instead, the colonies relied on physically removing the spores.

However, the self-medicating behavior does have limits. Honey bee colonies infected with pathogenic bacteria did not bring in significantly more propolis -- despite the fact that the propolis also has antibacterial properties. "There was a slight increase, but it was not statistically significant," Simone-Finstrom says. "That is something we plan to follow up on."

There may be a lesson here for domestic beekeepers. "Historically, U.S. beekeepers preferred colonies that used less of this resin, because it is sticky and can be difficult to work with," Simone-Finstrom says. "Now we know that this is a characteristic worth promoting, because it seems to offer the bees some natural defense."