Rayna Singhvi Jain is allergic to bees. A sharp pain in her leg prevented her from working for several weeks.
But that hasn’t stopped the 20-year-old social entrepreneur on his mission to save these important pollinators, whose populations have been declining for decades.
About 75 percent of the world’s crops depend, at least in part, on pollinators such as bees. Their collapse could have a huge impact on our entire ecosystem. “We are here today because of the bees,” Jane said. “They are the backbone of our agricultural system, our plants. Thanks to them we have food.”
Jane, the daughter of Indian immigrants who settled in Connecticut, says her parents taught her to appreciate life, no matter how small. She said that if there is an ant in the house, they will tell her to take it outside so that it can live.
So when Jane visited the apiary in 2018 and saw a pile of dead bees, she had an innate drive to find out what was going on. What she discovered took her by surprise.
”Bee decline is the result of three factors: parasites, pesticides and poor nutrition,” said Samuel Ramsey, professor of entomology at the Institute of Biological Frontiers at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Of the three Ps, by far the largest contributor is parasites, Ramsey says, in particular a type of mite called Varroa. It was first discovered in the United States in 1987 and can now be found in almost every hive across the country.
Ramsey in his study noticed that the mites feed on bees’ livers, making them more vulnerable to other mites, compromising their immune system and ability to store nutrients. These parasites can also spread deadly viruses, disrupt flight, and eventually cause the death of entire colonies.
Inspired by his high school science teacher, Jain began looking for solutions to eradicate varroa mite infestation in his junior year. After much trial and error, she came up with HiveGuard, a 3D-printed notch coated with a non-toxic botanical insecticide called thymol.
“When the bee passes through the entrance, the thymol is rubbed into the body of the bee and the final concentration kills the varroa mite but leaves the bee unharmed,” Jane said.
Around 2,000 beekeepers have been beta testing the device since March 2021, and Jane plans to officially release it later this year. The data she has collected so far shows a 70% reduction in varroa mite infestation three weeks after installation with no reported side effects.
Thymol and other naturally occurring acaricides such as oxalic acid, formic acid, and hops are placed inside the hive in strips or trays during ongoing processing. There are also synthetic excipients, which are generally more effective but more environmentally damaging, Ramsey says. He thanks Jane for his ingenuity in creating a device that maximizes the impact on mites while protecting the bees and the environment from side effects.
Honey bees are among the most efficient pollinators on earth. Their input is needed for over 130 types of fruits, vegetables and nuts, including almonds, cranberries, zucchini and avocados. So the next time you bite into an apple or take a sip of coffee, it’s all thanks to the bees, says Jane.
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The USDA estimates that in the United States alone, bees pollinate $15 billion worth of crops each year. Many of these crops are pollinated by managed bee services that are delivered throughout the country. As it becomes more expensive to protect bee populations, these services also become more expensive, Ramsey said, with an indirect impact on consumer prices.
But the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations warns that if the bee population continues to decline, the most dire consequence will be a serious threat to food quality and safety.
HiveGuard is just one of the ways Jane uses entrepreneurial ideas to support bees. In 2020, she founded health supplement company Queen Bee, which sells healthy drinks containing bee products such as honey and royal jelly. Every bottle sold is planted with a pollinator tree through Trees for the Future, a non-profit organization that works with farming families in sub-Saharan Africa.
“My greatest hope for the environment is to restore balance and live in harmony with nature,” Jane said.
She believes it is possible, but it will require groupthink. “People can learn a lot from bees as a social construct,” she added.
”How they could work together, how they could empower and how they could make sacrifices for the progress of the colony.”
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