About The Scientist
When Johnson began her academic career, she was a neuroscience major but was introduced to bees through an elective course she took her senior year with Professor Cameron Jack. When it came time to apply for grad school she decided to apply for entomology, the study of bugs, as her master’s degree. She has developed a love for honey bees and an understanding of all bugs and their purpose on this earth. She is currently working at UF/ IFAS Honey Bee Research Extension Lab.
What is Varroa?
Johnson, a current graduate student working in the Honey Bee Research Lab is conducting research on the devastating ectoparasite known as the Varroa. Her role as a researcher is to try and rear Varroa so that they can survive without the host of the honey bee so she can manipulate different aspects of their environment to help other researchers be able to test their theories on them. Varroa destructor is a parasite that attaches to the outside of the honey bee and cause malformations as well as weakens the bees and transmits many different deadly viruses.
“My last semester of my undergrad, I ended up taking an elective course through the entomology department. So, the class that I took was apiculture 1 or beekeeping, through Dr. Cameron Jack, who is one of our other professors here at HBREL. And I ended up falling in love with the content. And later on in the semester, he asked me if I'd be interested in taking on a teaching assistant position with him for that class, the next following semester. So I ended up teaching for that class. It was a really great experience," said Johnson
What can you do?
Honey bees are one of the most important pollinators we see in America and is what we use in most of our agriculture production. There has long been a movement to save the honeybees but what many fail to realize is these issues we are seeing with the honeybees usually finds its root problem of the Varroa destructor. So how do we help the bees? What can we as individuals do?
Johnson speaks about how she believes ornamental lawns are hurting our pollinators so by having native plants and flora in our yards we can help all pollinators not just bees. These lawns tend to be less helpful than native flora due to their lack of nectar sources. She also says that having a bird bath and putting marbles in them for the bees, so they do not drown when they are drinking the water is very helpful. Right now, the focus is eradicating this Varroa and in order to do that our lab and scientists need the funding to continue researching what can be done.
For more information on Brynn Johnson's research or anything honey bee related visit https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/honey-bee/
Credits:
UF_IFAS, Brynn Johnson