These include ragweed, wild beans, wild grapes and blackberries, sunflowers, sumac, clover, mulberries, goldenrod, sassafras, persimmons, ground cherry, hemp and lespedeza. The mite is a parasitic arachnid. They have largely wiped out feral honeybees, and have killed large numbers of the insects kept by bee keepers. Many of the wildlife foods that would otherwise be pollinated by feral bees are going untouched, a situation that results in less natural foods for wildlife, and farmers can no longer rely on feral bees to pollinate their crops. Beekeepers are trying to staunch the loss of bees with a miticide, buying time while researchers look for non-chemical means to control the parasites.
Honeybees are social insects that live in large colonies.
Most bees hibernate during the winter, but honeybees stay together, their shared body heat keeping them alive as they feed on stored honey. As soon as warm weather arrives in the spring, these bees are ready to fly out in search of pollen and nectar. In the course of this search they pollinate many of the wild foods that wildlife need. Solitary bees like bumblebees, in contrast, have to rear several generations of young in the spring before they become effective pollinators. They may not peak in numbers until July or August.