Cotton Newsline: May 12, 2017

While public perception continues to point to pesticides as the cause for honey bee and native bee decline, researchers and bumblebee experts have found a fungal gut parasite to be the most important factor in the decline of bees, including the rusty patched bumble bee – a bee native to the United States. These findings were published in a Genetic Literacy Project newsletter. Dr. Don Parker, Manager of Integrated Pest Management for the National Cotton Council, joins us to explain those findings and to call attention to an important distinction between managed and native bees.