At age 79, Ron Hoskins has been keeping bees as a living for most of his life. In 1992, the British bee population was devastated by the introduction of a bee-killing parasitic mite called the varroa mite. Ron lost thousands of bees; Britian lost millions. He vowed, then and there, he’d figure out a way to prevent this sort of loss again, and after 18 years of careful cross-breeding, study, and research, he claims he’s invented a strain of honey bee that’s borderline indestructible.
Last year, 17 percent of beekeepers in Britain reported colony losses. Hoskins, a retired heating engineer from Swindon, Wilts, knows how serious the threat to bees is to humanity. “If the bees die, we die,” Hoskins explained. “What I want to do is redevelop the British bee so that it can protect itself against these varroa mites. If all the bees in the world die out then we die out – the situation is really that serious. Humans are completely reliant on bees for pollinating crops and plants which produce oxygen.”
So how does his bee plan work? Well, Hoskins’ bees are grooming bees that clean one another, removing the varroa mite. The plan is to artificially inseminate queen bees throughout the country, then see if they are able to spread their genes around. Explained Mr. Hoskins, “We are hoping that drones from my ‘grooming’ bees will mate with wandering female virgin queens and spread the footprint across Britain. This is not a short term solution and it will take a lot of work but it could be our only hope of saving the bee.”
Tags: Ron Hoskins, man invents indestructible bees, varroa mite, British Beekeepers’ Association, man invents mite-resistant bees, genetically engineered bees, bees that can resist the varroa mite, bees that are parasite-resistant, unusual animals, unusual insects, Swindon, Wilts, England
