Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

ocba - [ocba] Mite bombs

ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: John Rintoul <beecd AT icloud.com>
  • To: Orange County Beekeepers Association <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [ocba] Mite bombs
  • Date: Wed, 10 May 2017 07:38:38 -0400

As Lewis says, (repeatedly) "Varroa, varroa varroa!" They can kill your bees, they can kill your neighbors' bees. Save the bees. Monitor and treat responsibly.

John Rintoul
No trees or bees were killed in the distribution of this message, but countless electrons were seriously inconvenienced.

Begin forwarded message:

From: Peter Borst <peterlborst AT CORNELL.EDU>
Date: May 9, 2017 at 6:34:40 AM EDT
To: BEE-L AT COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM
Subject: [BEE-L] Mite bombs
Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <BEE-L AT COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM>

In case you haven't seen this:

The importance of controlling varroa populations especially in areas of relatively dense bee colonies was stressed by Dr Dennis vanEngelsdorp at the BBKA Spring Convention earlier this month.

A sick colony explodes into the landscape and infiltrates surrounding apiaries, he said.

He identified the three key risk factors to bee health as varroa mites and associated viruses; pesticides in the field and in the hive; and poor nutrition.

Of these varroa is the biggest threat – and he and a research student soon expect to publish a paper showing that varroa mites feed off the fat rather than the haemolymph of honeybees – a factor that is of considerable importance for bees going into winter.

In a sample survey, he found that 56% of beekeepers had not used varroa-control products in the previous twelve months. For some hobbyists, not treating for varroa and losing, say, nine of ten colonies doesn’t matter too much. However, the impact does not stop at their own apiary.

In another study, he and his team marked bees in an apiary either yellow or blue. Yellow indicated that the colony was collapsing, blue that the colony was healthy. The collapsing colonies duly died out, but their surviving yellow-marked bees exploded like a bomb in the landscape. Those yellow bees were found in almost every apiary in a two-to-three-kilometer radius!

http://www.vita-europe.com/blog/

            ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html



Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page