2nd Place: D3166: Lovebugs (Diptera: Bibionidae: Plecia nearctica) repel honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae; Apis mellifera) from feeding stations

The lovebug, Plecia nearctica (Diptera: Bibionidae), is an invasive nuisance pest in Florida and the Gulf Coast states, USA. Anecdotal reports from beekeepers have indicated that honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae; Apis mellifera) will not forage for pollen and nectar from plants that lovebugs have visited or are actively visiting. Little research has been conducted on lovebugs since the 1970s, and no published studies have investigated honey bee and lovebug interactions. The purpose of this study was to determine how love bug presence/absence influences honey bee foraging behavior on sugar water feeders. We hypothesized that fewer bees would visit a feeder populated with lovebugs. To conduct this study, we set up two external hive feeders on a 1m tall stand. The two feeders were placed 1m apart from one another. We captured and placed 20 pairs of mating lovebugs into a screened enclosure, inserting the enclosure into the entrance of one of the feeders. We also inserted an empty screen enclosure into the entrance of the second feeder (negative control). Following this, we counted honey bees entering both feeders for 10 minutes each of 10 days. Freshly captured/screened lovebugs and new feeders/equipment were used each day of the study. Significantly more bees visited the control feeder (239.1 bees/day) than the feeder containing live lovebugs (178.7 bees/day). These results suggest that lovebug presence can impact honey bee attraction to food resources. Ultimately, this could impact resource utilization by honey bees in areas where lovebugs are present.