Posted for your discussion and information:
 
Dec. 28, 1998
 
TEXAS A&M ENTOMOLOGISTS ON LOOKOUT FOR
FERAL BEES
 
Writer: Robert Burns (903) 834-6191, [log in to unmask]
Source: Dr. Rodney Holloway (409) 845-3849, [log in to unmask]
 
OVERTON -- Due to the varroa mite, a parasite that kills or deforms
honeybee larvae,
approximately 90 percent of the wild bee colonies in East Texas have been
eliminated, according to
Dr. Rodney Holloway, extension entomologist.
 
Those wild bee colonies that survive may possess some degree of genetic
resistance to the varroa
mite, which has decimated domesticated bees both in the United States and
Europe, said Holloway,
speaking to 140 people attending a recent pesticide applicator
recertification conference at the
Texas A&M University Agricultural Research and Extension Center at Overton
in Rusk County.
 
Finding genetic strains of wild or "feral" honeybees that are resistant to
the varroa mite is essential to
the raising and care of bees for commercial or agricultural purposes. While
the mite has nearly wiped
out feral colonies, it is also decimating domesticated hives. Honeybees not
only produce honey for
human consumption but pollinate many important East Texas crops, including
cantaloupes,
cucumbers, pumpkins, pears, apples and watermelons.
 
Watermelons are particularly dependent upon pollination. Each watermelon
blossom requires about
1,000 grains of pollen, or about eight bee visits, to be pollinated. Just
as critical, the blossom is only
open during one day of the growing season. Without pollination, the melon
will grow to about
1-1/2inches long and abort. If it's not fully pollinated, the watermelon
may be undersized or
misshapen.
 
Fortunately for East Texas, Apistan strips, the only chemical control for
varroa mites, still rids hives
of the pest. But in the Southeast United States, misuse of a related
chemical has resulted in the
development of a mite population resistant to the strips, Holloway said.
 
For reasons unknown, the mites have not become a widespread problem in
Central Texas, but
remain confined to East Texas hives.
 
If Texas varroa mites were to become resistant to Apistan, then it would be
"a very serious situation"
because there's no other product available to control the parasite. If this
were to happen, then finding
genetically resistant lines in the feral bee population might become
essential to a domestic honeybee
breeding program, he said.
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