The staining of the front entrances in the spring in the north is usually indicative of Nosema apis, and nowdays, we only occassionally see this.? Nosema ceranae DOES NOT necessarily produce this symptom.? 


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Even the colonies with an apparent kill from N. ceranae did not have stained fronts.? I've seen some staining, and I've heard reports of some operations this spring with this problem.? I'd suspect those are N. apis.? And, in that case, cleaning up the comb might make a difference.


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I was a bit too general in my statement - we don't see much evidence of N. ceranae in the combs. Actually, last week we finally got our first confirmed case of N. apis from the Cramer labs - so the primers are ok.? N. apis just isn't around much - certainly not like it used to be.


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Jerry


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