A(pis)N(ova)P(roducts)-combs
 
\From:           Edward Sterling <[log in to unmask]>
 
\When I called a local bee supply company, they said ANP brood
\comb (to prevent varroa) cost $8.10/frame. Gulp, that's $160
\per hive. I understand it works very well though.
 
\How does that compare to using Apistan? Does the special comb
 
\From:           Matt Ter Molen <[log in to unmask]>
 
\What is ANP?  I have never heard of this type of treatment in any of
\the bee magazines in the U.S. or on this list.
 
\From:           Dave Johnson <[log in to unmask]>
\What is ANP brood comb and how does it (allegedly) alleviate varroa mite
\infestation?
 
Hi,
 
ANP-combs are plastic combs with separate celwalls and "foundation". The
trick is in the cell walls. The brood cells are conical. On one side the
cellwalls are normal and the cells are drone-sized, on the other side the
cell walls are thick and the cell is worker-sized. When the drone-sized side
is attached to the 'foundation' the queen walks over the worker-sized surface
and she lays worker-eggs. The developing worker-larvae are, however, at the
bottom experiencing a drone-sized brood cell. Mites invade brood cells when
the distance between the nearly fulgrown larvae to the cell rim is about 7mm.
This distance is reached at about 15-20 hours before cell capping in normal
worker cells. When the worker-larvae are in over-sized ANP brood cells this
period of brood cell invasion is shortend to about 9 hours (Wieting & Ferenz,
1990; Am. Bee. Journal 131:117-118). The population-growth of the mites is
directly related to the rate of brood cell invasion, because mites can only
reproduce inside a capped brood cell. Therefore, due to the ANP-combs the
growth rate of the mite population will surely be reduced. Also the
reproduction of the mite may be affected in these unnatural cells, but little
is known of this aspect.
These ANP-combs have not become popular in Europe. We have had two colonies
on these comb a few years ago. They did survive Varroa-infestation, but these
colonies didn't become very vitally.
Chemical treatment is generally effective, but because we work on Varroa-
behaviour, we do not want to use chemical treatment to keep our colonies
healthy (these chemicals may affect the behaviour of the mites).
For a few years on a row we use a self-developed trapping comb method with
drone brood, which is removed from the colony after capping together with the
trapped mites. The trick of this method is that you manage drone brood
production and let this drone brood trap mites in otherwise broodless
colonies e.g. during swarmprevention methods. This year we wrote a manual for
this method (in Dutch) and give a course to interrested bee-keepers.
 
[log in to unmask]
Wageningen Agricultural University
Department of Entomology