The Buzz About Bees

Maybe you could tolerate a world without honey. But what if you had to go without apples, strawberries, avocados, almonds and coffee, too? It’s difficult to believe that the work of a creature as inconspicuous as a bee could be responsible for one third of everything we eat. However, the truth is that without bees, so many of the crops we enjoy and rely on would cease to exist or be so incredibly cost prohibitive that no one, save the wealthiest, could afford to eat them.

Bees perform a task that is essential to the success of agriculture: pollination. There are hundreds of bee species globally, and most of them provide pollination services. The dominant pollinator, however, across bees and all animals is the common honeybee (or Apis mellif-era). Honeybees collect pollen and nectar as food for the entire colony, and as they do so, they unknowingly transfer pollen from one flower to another, fertilizing the plant, which then produces the food we love.

The problem is honeybees are disappearing globally at an alarming rate due to pesticides, parasites, disease and habitat loss. First identified in 2006, this trend has the agriculture industry, as well as commercial beekeepers, worried. Consumers, too, have something to lose if nature’s most valuable pollinators vanish and likewise, we all have a responsibility to do what we can to ensure their survival. 

At Hood, April Boulton, Ph.D., an insect ecologist by training, has been examining some of the factors responsible for declining bees. Her research—from examining the role native flower borders play in attracting more bees, to investigating pesticide alternatives—is helping to increase crop yields and save the bees. 

Boulton was awarded a research grant by the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 2014 to 2016 to investigate natural control measures for small-hive beetles, a pest of the honeybee. This research showed that there are some naturally occurring compounds with low toxicity levels that could reduce the beetle threat to honeybees. 

This work involved graduate and undergraduate researchers—some of whom were supported by two consecutive Hood Summer Research Institute grants. Her research also including Ron Albaugh, who welcomed Boulton and her students to plant experimental flower plots and more on his Peace and Plenty Farm in Thurmont, Maryland. A Board of Associates McCardell grant was also awarded in 2016 to Boulton for the analysis and dissemination of this research.

Given her pollinator work, Boulton was instrumental in the 2016 passage of the Maryland Pollinator Protection Act, which made Maryland the first state to ban residential use of a pesticide class shown to harm bees (neonicotinoids or neonics), which is a synthetic version of nicotine that impairs the neurophysiology of insects—both pests and unintended targets, like bees. The law limits residential use of these pesticides and requires plants and seeds that have been treated with neonics to be labeled as such. Boulton’s testimony at the Maryland Senate and House of Delegates was critically important, as she was the sole content expert to speak on the harmful impact of this pesticide on bees. 

From 2014 to 2018 in Maryland, beekeepers lost between 60 and 68 percent of their hives—one of the highest declines in the nation.

“It is imperative that scientists play a role in policy that relates to their field of expertise,” Boulton noted. “As a faculty member at a private, liberal arts college, I had the privilege of speaking honestly about the hundreds of peer-reviewed publications on this topic. High-powered bee researchers and entomologists usually have to decline such invitations, since they often work for state or federally funded institutions that frown on political action.”

Boulton also appeared on the nationally aired Kojo Nmandi Show as a content expert after this legislation failed to pass in the Maryland House the prior year. When the legislation was re-introduced in 2016 and passed, it became a model for several other states considering similar laws. In fact, Boulton receives a couple of calls each year from other states developing neonic protections. Boulton said it’s exciting to see momentum for the neonic ban on a national level. Since Maryland passed its law, close to a dozen other states have passed similar or additional protections.

“Given this momentum, perhaps we’ll catch up to the EU, which banned neonics back in 2013!” she said. More locally, Boulton, with the help of Suzanne Goldman Jacobson ’78, P’12 from Frederick Memorial Hospital, established the Community Resource Garden on Hood’s campus—a joint effort that provides produce to local Frederick families, veterans and senior citizens in need. The garden also features a pollinator plant strip and grant-supported monarch butterfly habitats. 

“The garden not only serves our community, it serves our ecosystem by providing critical nectar resources via native flowers to pollinators in decline,” Boulton said. “In effect, the Resource Garden feeds two deserving populations: citizens of Frederick and honeybees.” ■

The Bee Doctor

April Boulton earned her doctorate in ecology from the University of California, Davis, her master’s in animal behavior from Bucknell University, and her bachelor’s degree (liberally trained with a double major in psychology and classics) from Centre College. She has taught courses in insect ecology, climate change and environmental science since starting at Hood in 2006, and was promoted to dean of the Graduate School in 2018.

Although Boulton is a “busy bee” as dean, she still makes time to teach. A transdisciplinary course co-taught with Hood history professor, Corey Campion, Ph.D., which examines the globalization of the honeybee, will be featured in an upcoming book and was also presented at a national education conference on interdisciplinarity this past fall.

For all of her professional accomplishments and exceptional service to the College, Boulton was awarded the Henry P. and Page Laughlin Faculty Professional Achievement Award in 2014. In special recognition of her work to establish the Resource Garden, she received the Martha E. Church Award in 2018.

Students who have worked on pollinator research with Boulton include Natalie Jones ’16; Lisa Kuder, M.S.’14; Michel Lavarn ’15; Thomas Marino ’16; Curtis Rogers, M.S.’17; and Michelle Shedd ’18, M.S.’19.

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