Steve Sheppard's bees are getting a healthy dose of mushroom juice.
Steve Sheppard, head of the Department of Entomology at Washington State University, is feeding liquid extracts of forest mushrooms to varroa mite-infected honeybees. Initial findings suggest that five species of the wood-rotting fungi can reduce the honeybees' viruses and increase their lifespans. This ground breaking work is based in part on an idea of Paul Stamets, a Washington State mushroom specialist.
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