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DAY: Wednesday, June 8, 2022 (2nd Wednesday of every month)
TIME: 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm
PRESENTATION TITLE: Which Bees Do Mites Prefer To Feed On?
GUEST SPEAKER: Zac Lamas, PhD
WHERE: RECORDING - will appear at the bottom of page when you are logged in.
| 6:30.pm.ET | Member Meet-up! Join Zoom before the meeting starts and you can talk with old friends, meet new friends and have a good time. It is purposely unstructured so that you can socialize with fellow beekeepers. |
| 7:00.pm.ET | * Club Announcements from MCBA's President, Eric Malcolm |
| 7:30.pm.ET | Dr. Zac Lamas: Which Bees Do Mites Prefer To Feed On? |
Description of Zac's Talk
Testing and treating for mites is what separates beekeepers from bee-buyers. But to test for them, you need to know where to find the mites. Dr. Lamas will present his research to determine which bees are preferred by mites, and his results could help us more accurately gauge infestation rates.
Varroa earn their destructor name. They are the most important driver of honey bee colony losses worldwide. They damage bees both directly, by feeding on honey bee pupae and adult bees, and indirectly, by vectoring bee viruses like the deformed wing virus (DWV).
About Zac Lamas:
"Zac Lamas is a Ph.D. student in the Hawthorne Lab at the University of Maryland where he studies varroa feeding behavior and how pesticides affect honey bee queens. His current work uncovered how varroa is actively feeding and switching from one adult bee to another. Zac also created a novel method to rear honey bee queens in the lab, that he hopes will eventually help lower the cost of pesticide research on queens. He was the recipient of the PAm-Costco award. As a fellow, he is continuing to research these topics. His articles can be found in BeeCulture and BeeWorld magazines, and he actively speaks at bee clubs and professional conferences. Zac previously worked for Michael Palmer at French Hill Apiaries in Saint Albans, Vermont and has owned and operated his own business, RockStar Queens, where he's provided quality NUCs and queens in Central Maryland.
FUN FACT:
Zac spends his off hours hiking and enjoying the outdoors and building incredibly interesting things, including his new home-away-from-home/mobile lab for off season touring and data analysis!"
Zac is well known to MCBA members, as he has presented to our Club previously and was the recipient of MCBA's 2021 Bee Impact Grant for his work with nano-colonies.