Brooke Carson was once so sick with recurring infections that she had to take time off of school.
Now a graduate student studying media and communication at Texas Tech, she attributes her illness to extreme allergies and her recovery to increased consumption of local honey.
Brooke Carson, a 24-year-old graduate student at Texas Tech, sits in front of J&B Coffee Co. in Lubbock. (Allison Terry/The Hub@TTU)
“My system just, like, crashed because of allergies, and I developed asthma,” the 24-year-old said. “And then I finally said, ‘You need to stop taking everything you’re taking and let’s just focus on one problem.’ And the one problem was my allergies and asthma.”
After taking about a half a year off from her sttudies at Oral Roberts University, the Irving, Texas-native attended Tarrant County College, then graduated from Lubbock Christian University with a degree in communication.
Carson is grateful to have found a solution.
“The bees in your area collect the pollen and basically you’re ingesting the pollen, but your body’s building immunity to it,” she said.
Tucker Crawford, owner of Apple Country Orchards outside of Idalou, Texas, said about 80 percent of people who buy his local honey take it for allergy reasons.
Crawford, who owns 1,600 beehives, said customers mix the honey into teas or lemon water, or simply take a spoonful to alleviate the symptoms of so-called “allergy hangover”— feeling groggy and lethargic from allergies in the morning.
“We went around and talked to the local allergy and asthma doctors in Lubbock, and we told them what we do and gave them samples,” Crawford said. “Some of them actually sent it off for testing. But they will send their patients out to the grocery store to get it.”
Raw honey from the Apple Country Orchards is displayed for sale during the annual Autumn Fest at Texas Tech University in Lubbock on Sunday. (Allison Terry/The Hub@TTU)
Aside from taking honey as an anti-allergy medication, Carson uses it as a natural sweetener in beverages and baked goods. Carson she has even lost some weight since switching to honey.
Inspired by honey’s healing power, Carson’s mother pre-ordered a Honey Flow Hive to use on her ranch outside of Tom Bean, Texas. This new system allows honey to flow smoothly out of the hive, and is considered a less intrusive measure of collecting honey than traditional beehives, which must be taken apart.
But there is bad news for honey lovers. The bee population has been decreasing for nearly a decade, which scientists say could spell trouble not only for the production of honey, but also for the entire world’s food supply.
In 2006, beekeepers began noticing large amounts of their hives missing, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). While it is not unheard of to lose bees, especially during the winter, baffling circumstances have accompanied the loss.
“Usually, if you have a colony that dies on you, you might find a wad of bees next to your hive,” said Scott Longing, an entomology specialist and assistant professor in the Texas Tech Department of Plant & Soil Science. “But in this case, bees would leave and simply not come back to the colony.”
Click the infographic to enlarge.
This so-called “colony collapse disorder,” or CCD, has been responsible for about one-third of the honey bee decline in the last nine years.
But in 2015, a whopping 45 percent of domestic colonies in the United States expired, according to the National Resources Defense Council. Longing, a beekeeper himself, said many factors are triggering this phenomenon.
Honey bee pests, such as the Varroa mite, nectar source losses from native vegetation, beekeepers’ migratory management practices, habitat change and pesticides—include those in common lawn care products, such as Bayer Advanced—are all to blame.
Neonicotinoids, the active ingredient in killer insecticides, may rid lawns of pesky grubs, slugs or fleas, but it can harm bees in the process.
The “Saving America’s Pollinators Act” was introduced to the 113th U.S. Congress in 2013. The act aimed to ban specific ingredients in pesticides. Though backed by substantial evidence, the bill failed and was never enacted.
Longing said many fruits, nuts and vegetables require pollination.
“Bees are important,” he said. “It’s kind of known that one in three bites we eat are attributed to pollinators.”
Honey bees buzz around a hive at the Texas Tech Quaker Farm in Lubbock. (Allison Terry/The Hub@TTU)
Honey bees pollinate by traveling from flower to flower and collecting nectar for honey. By rubbing against flower anthers, pollen sticks to the bees’ legs. As this act aids billions of crop dollars each year, bees are the most effective insect pollinators.
Longing said once CCD was discovered among domestic bees, researchers began to investigate whether the same ailment was also affecting wild bees.
“It’s broadening from honey bees to, well, ‘What’s happening with our bumblebees and native bees?'” Longing said. “And, that’s along with developing restoration for protecting pollinator habitat and restoring pollinator habitat research.”
And what if bees were to become extinct?
“We would lose a lot of the food we enjoy,” Longing said. “We would lose a lot of biodiversity. But mainly, the pollination services they provide — that would be the greatest impact regarding what humans benefit from.”
Dr. Scott Longing, an assistant professor in the Texas Tech Department of Plant & Soil Sciences, smokes bees to calm them at Quaker Farm in Lubbock. (Allison Terry/The Hub@TTU)
Two weeks ago, Longing and other Texas Tech researchers from the Plant & Soil Sciences Department, the Department of Biological Sciences and the Department of Natural Resource Management won a USDA conservation and innovation grant. The interdisciplinary team will conduct a three-year project to restore pollinator habitat and study how this affects local biodiversity.
In the meantime, bee protection depends on individual accountability.
“If you walk into any hardware-type store, you can see aisles and aisles of pesticides that are available for over-the-counter purchase,” he said. “People need to be aware that what they apply to their ornamental plants and lawns could have a short-term and long-term effect.”
Sometimes, bees are also exterminated on purpose because their sting can be deadly. Tim Gafford, owner of Gafford Pest Control, recalled a case in which Africanized bees killed four dogs.
“If you agitate them to a certain level, they can go after you,” Gafford said.
While “killer bees” are relatively rare, wild bees that create a hive underneath homes, cars, sheds or in equipment can present problems. Swarming takes place when a colony takes a new queen bee, and searches for a satisfactory hive. Typically, this happens in the springtime.
“If there’s a swarm, per se, we know they’re going to move on,” Gafford said. “We just tell people to be patient; they’ll move the next day. The situation we deal with is if they are hived up in people’s homes, where they are a potential danger to people.”
[Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on Oct. 10 and updated with additional information on Oct. 14.]
About Allison Terry
