At 11:46 AM 7/24/98 +1200, you wrote:
 
>Andy those pictures of the Afro beetle are such horrible sights.
 
Hi Barry,
 
Yes the pictures are nasty, but they are NO different and in fact they are
identical except for the beetle's themselves to the pictures that could
have been taken of the damage the Grater Wax Worms have been doing to weak
and dead beehives that are not properly stored from California to Florida
and points East for at least my lifetime. This same damage to weak and dead
hives by wax worms includes both hived bees and feral colonies in the woods
and rocks.
 
It is a fact we did not want Afro-beetles but we have them today, also a
fact. I am not trying in any way to minimize this so called new bee pest.
I do expect that it will take several seasons of looking to assess how wide
spread they are as I suspect they may have been here for years without
notice by the beekeepers or bee regulators because the damage is not that
much different then the wax worms and other pests that will take over a
dead hive including the dramatic effects of honey running out the entrance
and the fermentation which is not unusual if dead or weak hives are not
protected in much of the West and Southern US.
 
I would expect that these beetles will not live long in the North and North
East the same as the grater wax worms don't but of course the number of
hives wintered in the North has changed dramatically with the most of our
bees on wheels today, but the supers in many operations do stay in the
North which will tend to protect them because of the short bee season and
long cool winters but not stop the spread of this pest from coast to coast
as I believe it is, but if not the job will soon bee done.
 
>I assume the authorities are searching for and destroying all attacked
beehives,
 
Well, this is not going to happen, (I hope), other then the initial search
and identification as it would require the quarantine in place of all hives
in any area the beetles are found and would be very destructive to the bee
industry which is on wheels and is fuel driven and must have access to
pasture by free and unregulated movement not to mention the pollination
services bees provide to agriculture which would suffer unbelievable losses
if bees were not available by a simple phone call to a beekeeper or his
pollination pimp, sometimes a thousand miles for the fields or orchards
needing the bees. And sometimes the day after they should have been in
place to do a good job of pollination.
 
>but here is an awful possibility - it seems to me that the life cycle of
the beetle is such that it could
>probably attack and breed in bumble bees nests.
 
Well I missed the basis for that thought on other species of bees other
then honeybee combs but anything is possible but would I think it would
require some genetic bridging that others have not reported or I have not
read to this time but for sure these beetles are pollen feeders as the wax
worms and many other lesser hive pasts also are and most other species do
not store enough pollen to keep very many Afro-beetles well fed and happy
in their work. Some say they are also honey feeders, I don't know that as a
fact but they for sure do the same damage as wax worms and will damage
unprotected honey combs as well as any honey in the combs and the honey
will run out of the combs also the same as with extreme wax worm damage,
and yes I have seen this not only in weak hives but also in normal healthy
hives in boxes made of plastic that the bees could not keep cool which
favored the wax worms to the point they would eat the hives alive a most
disgusting site to see.
 
As for the future beekeepers can expect that others will be looking at
their bees for these pests which is an insult to an industry like ours that
has the expertise to do this job for ourselves and a waste of tax payers
money including our own times two because we still have the responsibility
of inspecting our own hives matters not how many times they are given a GI
inspection. I am also sure some states as always will go off half cocked
and may even pass new regulations on this bee pest. This to is about as
dumb as a fence post as by this time all should know from past experiences
you can not regulate bee pests or bee health and that bee health is the
responsibility of the bee keeper and not that of the state. After all this
pest was probhibited by US Law from entering the country but made it in
spite of all laws and regulations.
 
As to the reported number of generations the Afro-Beetle can rear in a
season I would think that in the west and south we will see even more
generations but I also believe that zone of damage may be close to  that of
the Grater Wax Worms and the control would be the same. If you do not
protect your bee equipment in these areas, especially combs with pollen,
they will be 100% destroyed in one season with no help from the Afro-beetles.
 
It will be an interesting fall and winter and I am sure all will hear the
cry that the "sky is falling" again and again, coast to coast, which is
really the normal feeding cry of the bee regulators that require a new bee
pest every two or three years to justify their bloated budgets which as
before could again in time exceed that of the industry they want to
regulate if left uncontroled.  I am sure the National Honey Advertising
Board will release a plan to kill these pest by throwing money at them and
announce how much more important it is for all to vote to double the
assessment on honey which in reality will only increase the pile and grade
of the floor covering in their office's.
 
I got to add this thought that is of special interest to me and that is the
battle for the top of the food chain that the AFRO-Beetle is now waging
with the Grater Wax Moth Worms. At this date the only thing that can top
the wax moths is a good heavy population of mice but naturally in most bee
barns that is not allowed to happen but in the woods or in abandoned
equipment the mice is the winner. What will happen when the wax worms meet
the Afro-beetle worms is going to be very important to the winner and as
yet no one has reported on this. There is also a small no see em wasp that
can do a job on wax worms and can feed up to big numbers if allowed that
would be in this battle. Please don't send me any Afro-beetles I can wait
to do my own observations with my own beetles and worms when they arrive by
their own shanks mare.
 
Just the opinion of one OLd Drone
http://beenet.com
 
 
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