The World’s Bees Could be Saved by Mushrooms
It is said that hippies don’t follow any rules and like to live their lives as free as possible. This could be a reason why most of them are creative, think out of the box and their ideas have revolutionized the world.
Recently, a hippie had a revelation – mushrooms could contribute to saving the ailing bee colonies from the entire world. How is that possible? Let’s see what he has to say!
Paul Stamets, a mushroom grower from Seattle, woke up one morning to figure out that there is a connection between his crop and the bees. While he thought about it, he understood that the insects are drawn by the mushrooms because the latter have sugars in their mycelium.
How can Stamet’s breakthrough help the bees?
So far, nobody seems to have noticed that there is a connection between the funguses and creatures which produce honey. Stamet’s discovery isn’t as new as we might think. He realized that bees were heading towards the patches of mushrooms in 1984. Surprisingly, the insects were moving wood chips for getting to the mycelium.
Stamet’s question marks were cleared decades later, when he was talking to a friend about the fact that bees are disappearing in an alarming rate. Unfortunately, there are a lot of factors who contribute to this unpleasant phenomenon: parasites, viruses, deforestation or the use of agricultural chemicals.
During the discussion, Stamet realized that growing mushrooms could be a solution to save the bees. There is a reason why the insects are drawn by the fungal crops: they have sugars and antiviral properties in the mycelium. Bees which managed to touch the mycelium developed far greater resistance to viral infections and parasitic mites.
Researchers say that Stamet’s findings are very useful for the future of bee colonies from all over the world. The conclusions were mentioned in a research recently published in the Scientific Reports Journal.
As our second lead editor, Anna C. Mackinno provides guidance on the stories Great Lakes Ledger reporters cover. She has been instrumental in making sure the content on the site is clear and accurate for our readers. If you see a particularly clever title, you can likely thank Anna. Anna received a BA and and MA from Fordham University.
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