Coverage of OSU Research Reports on national news coverage of university research. Reporting on Cancer A reporter's guide to the disease. Who we are and what we do. The Biological Control journal paper on which this story is based can be reviewed by clicking here . The bee-delivered natural fungicide was also as effective at preventing gray mold as a commercially available chemical fungicide that was sprayed on plants.
Sprays cover both leaves and flowers, though the target is only the flowers.
The study appeared in a recent issue of the journal Biological Control . Kovach did the study while he was working at Cornell University. The fungicide they used for preventing gray mold, which is caused by the fungus Botrytis cineria, was a commercially available strain of a microorganism called Trichoderma harzarium 1295-22. The study was conducted from 1994 to 1997, using commercial bumblebee colonies and honeybee hives. Although flowers collected from the plants that received bee-delivered treatment had only half the density of the natural fungicide as compared to those that were sprayed, they showed better fungus control.