From: Omaha World-Herald
By Andrea Larson / World-Herald News Service
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Both beekeepers said mites are a big challenge when working with colonies.
“When I first started, I didn’t understand the destructiveness of what’s called a varroa mite. Those things are just killing colonies like crazy. The problem with the varroa mite is it carries a lot of disease with it, so it weakens the hive,” Pofahl said.
Leave a Comment October 12, 2017
From: State University of New York | Potsdam
Experiential learning is the at the heart of a SUNY Potsdam education and that is no more clearly expressed than when seniors Ryan Shores, Sydney LaPan, Toni Wahl and Christina Cranwell recently donned bee suits to inspect local bee hives with university Instructional Specialist Ray Bowdish and Dwayne Belt from the Local Living Venture’s Bees & Beekeeping Group.
The four students ventured out to inspect local honey bee hives as they were looking for the presence of the Varroa Mite (Varroa destructor), a pest that regularly plagues Honey bee (Apis melifera) colonies—Causing the parasitic disease, varroosis that weakens bee hives and eventually causes the hive to die or “collapse.”
Leave a Comment October 11, 2017
From: The Wilson Times [North Carolina]
By Drew C. Wilson
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The feral bees have been down in their numbers since the introduction of the Varroa mite, a small parasite that can attach itself to the insect.
“The Varroa mite is the main problem for the beekeepers,” Keller said. “That’s something that we can treat in the hives, but obviously in the wild, those don’t get treated. Sometimes a hive can survive for several years before it will finally succumb to the pressure of the Varroa mite. The overall health of the honeybee in the wild is unknown because we can’t get in there and look at them, but their numbers are down.”
Leave a Comment October 10, 2017
From: National Geographic Australia
By Catherine Zuckerman
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Colony collapse in general could be devastating to food production. So scientists are looking for alternatives. Most honeybees in the U.S. today are of Italian heritage and vulnerable to a pest called the varroa mite. But Russian bees are more resistant to it, and backyard beekeepers have had success with them. The problem, says Tarpy, is that Russian honeybees don’t make as much honey as their Italian counterparts and “aren’t as amenable” to the migratory nature of pollinating large-scale farms.
Leave a Comment October 9, 2017
From: Anses [French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety]
Organised by: French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety & World Organization for Animal Health
Place : Istambul
During the 45th APIMONDIA congress held in Istanbul from 29th September to 4th October 2017, ANSES and OIE have organized a symposium on the “Emerging infectious agents in Honey bees and OIE listed diseases”. The ANSES laboratory located in Sophia Antipolis is OIE reference laboratory for honeybee diseases and the European reference laboratory for honeybee health.
Leave a Comment October 6, 2017
From: Park Rapids Enterprise
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“Their mouthparts are like a dirty syringe,” so the mite can spread viruses from bee to bee.
“Bees don’t have antibodies in their system, so there’s no way we can vaccinate them like we can for ourselves. There’s many, many viruses, so the solution is to try to get rid of or control the mites as much as possible,” Spivak said.
Leave a Comment October 5, 2017
Editor’s Note: Kudos to the State of Florida and UF/IFAS for recognizing the crucial role of honeybee research in safeguarding food security.
From: alligator
Leave a Comment October 4, 2017
Editor’s Note: To better understand the EU’s neonicotinoid policy, read about beegate.
From: Euractiv
By Paola Tamma
Hot dossiers
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Alina Cretu, a representative for maize producers in Romania, also spoke in support of neonicotinoid seed treatment (coating the seed as a preventive measure against pests).
Leave a Comment October 3, 2017
From: USDA/AMS via Lancaster Farming
Colony, Honey Plant And Market Conditions During August 2017
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Leave a Comment October 2, 2017
