A microbe-based commercial fungicide might be more effective at penetrating the many layers that protect chalkbrood spores. Though not impenetrable, these spore cysts are quite difficult for a synthetic chemical to attack. In her search for beneficial bacteria, yeasts, and molds of the bee world, Gilliam has combed hives of the familiar European honey bee, Apis mellifera, in the United States and abroad. Her sleuthing has yielded some 8,000 strains of microbes that she has painstakingly isolated and identified. Gilliam's research has shown that some of the microbes live amiably in bees' intestines and help with digestion.
Some microbes act as food preservatives and keep the beebread from spoiling in the hive.
And Gilliam's investigations have revealed that microbes such as certain Penicillium, Aspergillus, and Bacillus organisms apparently produce compounds that inhibit growth of chalkbrood-causing fungal spores. A Growing Menace Chalkbrood attacks only at the larval stage. White, wormlike larvae hatch from the eggs and transform into pupae. Later, young bees emerge from the pupal cocoons. Larvae may become infected with spores carried in pollen or spread by the nurse worker bees that tend the colony's brood.