UCCS Student Bee Research Initiative

Project Coordinator: Corey Schneider

Project Sponsor: Amanda Klingler

Responsible Department: Biology

Total GAF Funding: $5,000

Themes: Research Opportunity, Conservation, Beekeeping

Goal: Observe if caffeine will cause any partial or total parasitic ejection of varroa mites from mature honeybees. Testing on honeybees supplied by local community partners of our beekeeping program to test and observe any therapeutic index mapping potentials through the application of natural caffeine sources in sugar-water feed: With intent to observe any potential changes in parasitic varroa mite embedding in model organism. 

Impact: Quantified and hard data derived from feed trials of study. Through donated / collected bees with mites - direct and recorded observations of different feed type ranges and their respective results will add to the data sets applied through softwares as we go through the duration of the study.