Saving Bees with Pesticides

How are pesticides helping to save honey bees? In this video, Alex Dainis explains that varroa mites are pests that threaten bee populations by acting as a parasite to both adult bees and bee larvae. But scientists have invented a treatment that mitigates the danger of these mites. The pesticide works by using RNA to shut down a gene that the mites need to reproduce. The pesticide is administered by adding the RNA to the bees’ food source so that they’ll carry it back to their hive. There, that RNA will stop the mites from reproducing!