>Surely you were clutching a dummy banana?

As soon as I got out there, I realized my error in not bringing a sham
banana.  I couldn't find anything equally yellow in the beeyard, but also
waved an assortment of sticks of about the same size and shape, as well as
hiding the banana in my hand so that only the brownish cut and fragrant end
was exposed.

>
> >Banana skins under the lid had a short popularity with some folks
> hereabouts as a treatment for chalk brood .
>

I've long been curious about using banana against chalkbrood, as it is a
folk remedy in a number of countries.  A few years ago I asked a researcher
who was growing the chalkbrood fungus in petri dishes to test to see
whether banana or banana peel inhibited the growth of the fungus on agar.
It didn't.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that we should completely discount the
possibility that there might be an effect.  A local beekeeper recently
related to me that she had placed a cut banana in a hive, and that the bees
responded by vigorously cleaning the hive, piling hive debris on the
landing board by the next morning.

Thus, it is biologically plausible that the IAA in banana might elicit
increased hygienic behavior, and possibly encourage bees to remove
chalkbrood mummies before they sporulate.  I'm thinking of possibly running
an experiment this summer to see.
-
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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