Randy wrote:

> >Natural selection must have found that it is more adaptive to seal it off
> than to deal with potentially toxic substances.
>

It is interesting in this context to note that apis dorsata returns often to
the same tree or cliff (in the case of apis laboriosa) but never reuses the
old combs (if they have remained or not been harvested).  There is a big
cost to bees in rebuilding and wax production but it is obviously offset by
a reduction in disease loading (and maybe toxins, but likely primarily
disease organisms).  Sealing off suspicious cells is probably not nearly as
demanding of energy to the bees.  In a few cases in my operation  when some
particularly nasty combs have gone out to the bees if they didn't tear the
comb down they propolized it.

Juanse is lucky to have a market for his old comb for raising wax moth.
What is the blueberry pest they are targetting with the wax moth disease
Juanse?

That being said, entombed pollen is something I am finding more commonly
now.  The pollen under the propolis is brick red, dry and crumbly.  There is
a lot of chlorothalonil fungicide used here on potatoes.  Sometimes the
fields are sprayed weekly or even every five days when the blight index is
high.  You know you are on PEI when the blight index is included on the
radio news.

Stan

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