WSU Honey Bees + Pollinators
Bee Helpful
A Global Problem
Honey bees are the single most important pollinator contributing to a healthy global food supply. Declines in insect pollinators worldwide present a challenge for food security.
Washington State University’s new Honey Bee and Pollinator Research, Extension, and Education Facility at Othello, Wash., offers a new home for development of the world’s best programs help save the bees. Opening in spring 2020, this new facility is located amid the pollinator-dependent agriculture of central Washington.
“This facility will increase collaboration and allow for enhanced short courses, demonstrations, and classes for beekeepers—which will directly help the agricultural industry since honey bees are vital to our food supply,” said Steve Sheppard, P. F. Thurber Endowed Professor of Pollinator Ecology in WSU’s Department of Entomology. “This facility will really help upgrade the work we do.”
Bee Friendly
Join Us in Saving the Bees
We’re partnering with Paul Stamets and Fungi Perfecti to protect honey bees and pollinators. Our renowned global research program works with beekeepers, scientists, environmentalists and communities to improve honey bee and pollinator health. This effort supports research on how fungi can help honey bees.
Together, our work will ensure the thriving pollination system critically needed for domestic and global food security.
Diagnostic Lab
Breeding Program
Can mushrooms Save the Honey Bee?
Early last year, Stamets asked Washington State University entomologist Steve Sheppard to help confirm his hunches about bees and fungi. The two have since joined forces to explore the connections that, as far as they know, no one has ever made before. This unlikely pairing of entomology and mycology could lead to less toxic and more effective ways to control the diseases and pests that are implicated in winter hive losses and colony collapse disorder.