From the pages of APIS, Volume 14, Number 8 August 1996
 
THE WORLD'S BEESWAX--FOULING THE COLLECTIVE NEST
 
Most beekeeping products are consumable items. They can be looked at as
transitory (i.e.
short-term assets on the beekeeping balance sheet). One, however, has
traditionally been in the
long- term asset category. This is beeswax, that marvelous substance only
the honey bee can
produce. Although it can be converted into other products (waxes,
cosmetics), a huge amount is
recycled by the beekeeping industry and given back to the industrious
insects that made it as
foundation for their nest.
 
Along with those of honey (see May and June 1996 APIS), beeswax prices have
escalated, though
not necessarily for the same reasons. In the February issue of BEE BIZ (No.
2, 1996, pp. 3), Editor
Matthew Allen analyzed this phenomenon. For many years, the market was
split. Top-quality wax
from Africa, the Americas and Australia was viewed differently than that of
the Far East, mostly
from China. The latter was often adulterated by paraffin and, thus,
restricted to polish and candle
use. The price differential between these two wax sources is now closing,
Mr. Allen concludes, as
demand for use in luxury items, confectionery and fancy food products
increases, and so the price
may remain high for some time. That's the good news. The bad news is that
the world's beeswax is
becoming more fouled each day, a tradeoff in controlling the Varroa mite.
 
Ever since beekeepers began using pesticides inside living bee colonies
(see December 1987 APIS),
there have been concerns voiced about colony contamination. Most had to do
with honey; these are
reduced considerably now with appropriate use of Apistan(R). Few, however,
considered the
possible effect of long- term widespread use of the contact pesticide
fluvalinate on the beeswax
supply.
 
No longer is this the case. Writing in the same issue of BEE BIZ as Mr.
Allen (p. 4) about the 1995
Apimondia meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, Clive de Bruyn reported that
high residue levels of
fluvalinate have been found in beeswax. Because of the nature of the
molecule, he concluded, it
bonds with the wax, making it almost unremovable. The Australian Bee
Journal (quoted from June
1996 Bee Culture, p. 376) says virtually every kilogram of European wax is
contaminated, most
likely because of recycling fluvalinate-impregnated wax for foundation.
 
European beekeepers, therefore, are examining their beeswax more closely
than in the past, and not
using heavily contaminated product for foundation. Dr. Peter Rosenkranz,
University of Hohenheim
reported at the Fifth Ibero Latin American Beekeeping Congress in Mercedes,
Uruguay (June 1,
1996) that residues from two to 20 milligrams of fluvalinate per kilogram
of beeswax have been
found. He says these levels might be enough to cause pesticide resistance
to develop in Varroa. Mr.
de Bruyn says that so much resistance can already be seen in certain
districts of Italy, France and
Germany that beekeepers are being advised to abandon all pyrethroids
(chemical relatives of
fluvalinate) in favor of other chemicals.
 
If levels of fluvalinate get too high, might there not be concern that the
honey bees themselves will be
poisoned by the chemical designed to rid them of Varroa (see April 1992
APIS)? There is some
hope that beeswax from places that don't have Varroa would dilute the
worldwide supply, according
to the Australian Bee Journal, as referenced in Bee Culture. However, it
concludes that a return to
fluvalinate- free wax, would take an estimated fifty years, provided there
was no chemical usage for
that time period.
 =======================================================================
Dr. Malcolm (Tom) Sanford        Tel 352/392-1801 x 143
Extension Apiculturist           FAX 352/392-0190
University of Florida            E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Bldg. 970, Box 110620
Gainesville, FL 32611-0620
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