Honeybee Researcher

On a recent research trip to Thailand, Samuel Ramsey got up some days around sunrise—the same time that honeybees wake up. He’d head out into nature and look for buzzing insects. When he found a hornet that attacks honeybees, he’d gently catch it and tie a red string around its body. The hornet marked with brightly colored string would lead him straight to a bee colony.

Ramsey (who goes by Dr. Sammy) is an entomologist—a scientist who studies insects—at the University of Colorado. He was in Thailand to study organisms that have symbiotic relationships with honeybees. These organisms live on or with the insects.

After finding the bee’s hive, one of Ramsey’s collaborators took samples of it. Ramsey examined the honeycomb under a microscope. He observed common parasites, or harmful organisms that live off another creature, alongside developing young bees. Over the past 15 years, parasites such as mites have contributed to declines in both wild honeybees and those managed by beekeepers. Ramsey spoke with Science World about his journey into entomology as well as why he specializes in the health of honeybees.

When I was 7, I was terrified of bugs. My parents helped me tackle my fear by giving me books about insects. The more I read about them, the more excited I got about these tiny animals. Within a year, I had checked out every insect-themed book in the young adult section of the library. As a kid who was always the smallest person in my class, it was exciting to recognize how much cool stuff a small creature could do. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was already training myself to be an entomologist.

Farmers rely on honeybees to grow food. Honeybees eat a sugary liquid called nectar and powdery pollen produced by flowering plants. When honeybees land on flowers to gather some of the food, pollen sticks to their bodies. As they eat, the insects carry the pollen to other plants of the same species. This allows the plants to reproduce. Without bees acting as pollinators, we wouldn’t have many of the fruits and vegetables that we enjoy eating.

Honeybees are remarkable mathematicians! To find flowers, they navigate using the angle of the sun. And they’ve figured out that if you want to store a fluid—such as honey in honeycombs—the most efficient shape for the containers is a hexagon. How they figured out this complex geometry is crazy to me. 

Yes, North America has about 4,400 native bee species. These bees pollinate native plants and trees. Honeybees are originally from Europe. European settlers who came to the U.S. brought honeybees with them. Now they compete with native bees for pollen. It’s possible for all these bees to coexist, but they need plenty of food. To help, people can turn their yards or windowsills into bee sanctuaries filled with flowering plants. One square foot of flowers can feed a lot of bees. 

I watched a lot of people talk about science on YouTube and other places. It was almost never people who looked like me. And I wanted to change that. I also have so much enthusiasm for entomology that I needed somewhere to put it all. So I started my own YouTube channel, called Doctor Buggs.

You are the one writing your story. Don’t let anyone tell you how it will end. When I was in graduate school, someone tried to tell me that I didn’t seem like someone who would get a Ph.D. That individual tried to write my story. And I had to decide: No! I get to define who I am and what an entomologist can be.