In a message dated 4/12/00 6:27:16 PM Pacific Daylight Time, writes:

> COULD ONE OF THE PROFESSIONAL BEEKEEPERS POST A LIST ON WHICH
>  IS THE WORST TO HAVE=
>
>  1)=AFRICANIZED HONEY BEES
>  2)=AMERICAN FOULBROOD
>  3)=EUROPEAN FOULBROOD
>  4)=MITES QO BEETLES

    Not on your list is the worst hazard facing bees, which is pesticide
misuse. It is the worst, because the solutions depend on the actions of
pesticide users, who may or may not obey the law, and enforcers, who may or
more likely may not enforce the law.   There is little a beekeeper can
personally do to solve the problem, unless it is to feed damaged bees and try
to help them recover. All other efforts must be directed at getting others to
obey/enforce the law.

    Unfortunately beekeepers will not unite in this endeavor. Recent
discussion on this list, of mosquito spraying by public agencies focused on
plans of notifying beekeepers and then the beekeepers are considered
responsible. This plan is not feasable, and is, in fact a seizure of the
beekeepers' property (read the Bill of Rights). If you are a hobbyist and
they are spraying in the daytime, how you gonna' explain to your boss that
you have to take a sick day to take care of your bees?  If you are a
commercial beekeeper, and they are doing aerial spraying (and you can't even
find out exactly where on that day!), how are you gonna "protect" the seven
bee yards that "might" be in the applicator's path?

    All this is based on a scheme to do an "end run" around the label
directions, which actually are the law.  Whenever beekeepers do not work
together to require applicators to comply with the law, we are our own worst
enemy.  One outlandish suggestion touted was to put balloons on the bee
yards.  Sheesh!

    Until beekeepers quit running everytime we are told to run, this will
continue. We are the turkeys at the turkey shoot.  And the wild bees, that
the ivory tower guys say will save the day when honeybees are gone, are going
to be the worst hit, whenever applicators spray in violation.

    Every beekeeper should get copies of the labels of insecticides used in
their area (you can find out how at:
http://pollinator.com/pesticide_misuse.htm)   The instructions protect bees
where they need it:  AT THE FLOWER!

    Then work to get applicators to OBEY those instructions, rather than
EVADE them by notifying beekeepers, or by turning off the sprayer over the
hives (ineffective, because bees are contaminated at the flower not at the
hive).


>  PLEASE POST IN ORDER YOUR #1 WORST TO YOUR #4 WORST TO HAVE OR GET?

Well, I guess I can take a stab:

 2 (after pesticide misuse)=AMERICAN FOULBROOD   Definitely the next, now
that there are resistant strains of this bacteria.
3)=MITES QO BEETLES    Actually you have three different things here.
Tracheal mites were a bad hit, because we didn't know anything about them,
but they are minor now, easily controlled by good breeding. Varroa mites are
more serious, but any losses I've had from them have resulted from my own
inattention.  I've not had enough experience yet with the beetles to rate
them.
4)=AFRICANIZED HONEY BEES   No real experience with them, so I don't really
know. I expect them to be manageable, especially after the first couple
years. My biggest concern is how I'm going to deal with heat exhaustion, if I
have to wear a bee suit, which I don't do now (because heat will get me a lot
quicker than my bees).
5)=EUROPEAN FOULBROOD:  very minor problem, controllable by good breeding. I
saw the first case this spring in several years. Of course this colony also
had sacbrood, one cell of AFB, and pms, as well (good stock to cull).

>  AND LIST HOW WE CAN STOP THE SPREAD OF THEM ACROSS THE COUNTRY?

   Probably not possible in this day and time... Quarantines may slow the
spread slightly, but free trade and abundant travel can't stop them, as New
Zealand has recently discovered.  North Carolina had a quarantine, but got
varroa about as fast as South Carolina. Mainly it stopped South Carolinians
from going to NC, but NC beekeepers freely came into SC for low elevation
sourwood, then returned to NC for the later high elevation flow.  Once on the
road, I bumped into a guy from Savannah, who had a couple hives in the back
of his station wagon, headed for his summer home in Asheville.  He had never
heard of a quarantine, and didn't care anyway.

    Our next problem may be the Cape Bee; no doubt the recent article touting
them as the "solution" to "killer" bees will incite some idiot to import them
on the QT.

    Sigh.....then we'll have to deal with that....

Dave Green
The Pollination Home Page:    http://pollinator.com