Subject: | |
From: | |
Reply To: | |
Date: | Sat, 2 Mar 1996 14:11:17 -0500 |
Content-Type: | text/plain |
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
Once you find yourself the unfortunate owner of foulbrood-contaminated
equipment, what you can do with it is largely a function of your local bee
laws. So first check with your local bee inspector before doing anything.
In Maryland, we have an Ethylene Dioxide fumigation chamber run by the
Department of Agriculture. The fees are reasonable, they accept small lots
of equipment, and I am presently have in service some hive bodies that came
from a hive with foulbrood, and then went through the chamber. No problems
have been observed to date.
I am glad to see some folks have successfully used irradiation.
If the decontamination route is available (and you elect to use it), then be
careful to keep contaminated equipment segregated from the good stuff, out of
reach of bees, and preferably plastic bagged and tagged. If you are going
to burn infected gear, do it promptly. The "shelf life" of foulbrood spores
is effectively infinite. Unlabled infected gear will almost invetably get
put back into service by accident, thereby re-introducing foulbrood.
W. G. Miller
Gaithersburg, MD
|
|
|