Thanks to Adony for the information on fumidil dusting!

 Chris said:
>Whether you treat with fumidil or not, you should still put your bees onto
clean (fumigated with acetic acid fumes for example) comb in the spring as
fumidil will do nothing to prevent reinfection from soiled comb.

Actually most old commercial comb *in my opinion* has nosema contamination
to
some degree. Checking spore load and spring & fall treatment will control
nosema but if a treatment is skipped or for whatever reason is not effective
then you have got problems.

Many hobby beekeepers will cringe at what I am about to say but it is what
it is.

Chris makes an excellent point but fumigation is not normally done by
commercial U.S. beekeepers but many will burn severely contaminated comb.
Time is money and I have seen bon fires many feet high of comb burned by
beekeepers which do not considered fumigating worth the time.

Also many of the largest outfits believe in never letting nosema
contamination get a start. From the time equipment is put in service nosema
is controlled. Treat spring & fall.

If an outfit does not treat for nosema for years and then is wiped out (
happened to Richard Taylor from Bee Culture and Richard detailed his problem
in several articles) then because of the comb contamination the outfit will
always be fighting nosema problems (which usually shows itself with poor
honey yields even if no outward signs are visible.)

Its really hard to keep healthy bees on comb which has a high level of
nosema contamination.

 Also comb from a hive which  has crashed from varroa leaving signs of
parasitic mite syndrome (virus contamination). My research has shown when
varroa control drops hives with virus contamination from the former hive
deadout will show virus symptoms first.

Interesting virus point:

The U.S.( USDA-ARS )  not long ago  said it had no KBV.

Denis Anderson came and checked and KBV was in every place he checked.

Denis said at the meeting last month in Australia he thought IABV could
simply be a variation of KBV.

Also from page 4 of the current ABF newsletter:

" Likewise, Kashmire Bee Virus (KBV) was found in all CCD samples (100%) and
in 81% of the healthy samples tested."



I think the above points to the fact these virus capable of killing hives
exist in most U.S. hives. We know KBV is a killer of hives ( ask the
Canadians!)
 If the CCD researchers consider hives with KBV healthy then why the concern
over apparently healthy hives testing positive for IAPV?

bottom line:
Control varroa and virus is a non issue. The only exception would be a
strain of bee like the Russian be which it seems is not effected by virus
despite fairly high varroa loads. I have seen Russian hives crash from
varroa and show PMS  but not the norm.

bob


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