Hi Dee and Everyone,

Dee wrote in part :

"Yes, Blane, this is going to be the problem. Decreasing the
residues. I know you cannot photodegradate apistan residues
in a solarwax melter, and few have Kelly wax rendering
setups for underwater. I also know in the warm, damp
environment of a beehive too, that residue breakdown for a
lot of substances is not very fast, and in fact slower then
in soil and sunlight! Just how is the industry going to
deal with this problem? What do you envision?"

There has been some residue testing done on foundation that I have heard
about.  This is from memory and I am sure Medhat Nasr can and hopefully
will correct me if I am wrong but here goes.  Fluvalinate ( apistan)
residues seem to be considerably reduced to the point of being
undetectable by processing the wax into foundation but coumaphos is not.
 Dee is right these things last a very long time in the wax combs in the
hive as the ultraviolet light in sunlight is what usually degrades these
materials in the field ( this is usually true for most pesticides ).  I
suspect that most beekeepers will simply stop using miticides when they
have bees that tolerate the mites and remain productive without such
treatments.  They will not replace all their combs but just do the
normal replacement culling of combs over time.  Residues will continue
in perviously exposed combs but the amount will slowly decrease over
time and be diluted by new combs as the old are slowly replaced.  Of
course the melting and reusing combs with coumaphos residue will greatly
prolong the time that coumaphos residues can be detected in the combs
but this should decrease over time by dilution.  Residues in honey
should decrease fairly quickly once treatments are discontinued.  It
would be nice to get back to totally residue free wax but I am not sure
it is worth the time, effort, and cost for most beekeepers to try to do
so.  At what point is such residue of no importance?  When honey
produced in the colonies contains no detectable residues or when there
are no detectable residues in broodcombs?  The sooner we have bees that
don't need treatment the sooner we can actually argue the fine points of
residue in the combs I guess.  When does it matter?

Dee also asked about selling wax that may have residues.  Not sure here
but I also have heard that wax buyers don't want any broodcomb wax due
to residue concerns.  Is there enough wax in old broodcombs to be worth
trying to save given the residue concerns?  What can or should it be
used for?  Probably not foundation or cosmetics and confectionaries.
Candles?  Some other use?

First we need to selectively breed honeybee stocks that are
resistant/tolerant to varroa and do so as quickly as we can.

FWIW

blane



******************************************
Blane White
MN Dept of Agriculture
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