Can bees be used to protect strawberry from Botrytis cinerea infection?

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could get bees to deliver an effective agent to strawberry flowers that would protect them from infection by Botrytis cinerea? Researchers in Sweden used bumblebees to pick up a biocontrol fungus (Aureobasidium pullulans) and deliver it to strawberry flowers, reducing Botrytis fruit rot by 45% and doubling the fruit’s shelf life.

That’s impressive, especially in light of our own results with the same biocontrol fungus where it showed no efficacy against Botrytis fruit rot under field conditions.

So, what’s going on? 
Why such a big difference between their results and ours?

✭✭ Read more in our latest research blog post ✭✭
https://strawberrycenterblog.com/2023/08/24/botrytis-and-bees/