Hello All

I sent the following post to the Irish beekeeping Discussion List.

A discussion on the inevitably or otherwise of resistance recently occurred
on this List. Tom Barrett took the view that resistance was inevitable in
view of the fact that resistance to Apistan and Coumaphos is now in the USA,
resistance to the former is widespread and resistance to the latter is
growing. And nearer home resistance to Bayvarol is now in the UK, and as we
will see later in this e mail it is spreading. The fact that this resistance
may be due to improper use of the acaricides gives no comfort since the mite
is, in a manner of speaking, merely exploiting one of the many weaknesses of
human nature.

Ruary Rudd wrote:

>Norman Carreck has to some extent dealt with this earlier when he said
>"Development of resistance when the products are used according to the
>manufacturer's instructions is not actually inevitable"

James Kilty then wrote:

With a great deal of respect for Norman's support of this list and the
wealth of information he has provided us, this statement would be strongly
disputed by other experts. It seems to be the way of nature that life
survives as long as it can in the most adverse circumstances. The adaptation
of mites to single chemical miticides like the synthetic pyrethroids happens
in a little over 10 years as was well known to the manufacturers and to all
agriculturists who depend on pesticides.

The treadmill can be broken by (amongst other approaches) minimalist
applications of different treatments, breeding resistant stock or bringing
in the pests' selected natural enemies that can live
harmoniously with the environment they are brought into. Hence attempts to
use natural substances some of which have a mix of active ingredients that
work in different ways, research into fungi, breeding traits like hygiene,
SMR, and grooming damage into bees, and such as FGMO fogging and
accompanying emulsion.

I am very unhappy with the response to resistance (now within 5 miles of my
home) using stronger chemicals. We do have our home-grown Apiguard and a few
other tricks that could be used. The report last week of the Regional Bee
Inspector had resistant mites in Camborne North and South and the Lizard: 3
10km squares in a row spanning most of my apiaries.

This autumn I have managed to bring several local beekeepers into a project
to seek colonies that damage mites, so far involving 132 colonies. The long
term aim is to flood the whole area with drones that carry helpful genes, by
continuously selecting and breeding. Not a short term measure, but, coupled
with less toxic approaches to reduce mite numbers below a colony-lethal
number, likely to produce a stable result. Once we have enough data I will
present details of mite falls and %
damage.
--
James Kilty

Tom Barrett then wrote:

Can James say what these stronger chemicals are please?

Am I correct in saying that the UK authorities have or did have some
procedures in train to attempt to ring fence the resistant mites, and do I
understand from the above that the resistant mites are spreading?

James Kilty responded as follows:

>Can James say what these stronger chemicals are please?
I will check.
>Am I correct in saying that the UK authorities have or did have some
>procedures in train to attempt to ring fence the resistant mites,
Monitoring carefully and comprehensively was the best they could do as
far as I can see. Bee Inspectors were taking samples everywhere they
went and doing their standard test. It's not something you can ring
fence.
Ø and do I understand from the above that the resistant mites are spreading?
Ø
Indeed. To places discontinuous on the map. In other words it seems to
be beekeepers or as Murray suggested, cars containing one or two bees
with resistant mites. Nothing would surprise me. One chap boasted about
getting swarms and bringing them home when varroa first arrived in the
area of the swarms and had not arrived in the home area. Guess what!
Heather beekeepers dispersed it around the country so would do the same
for resistant mites. There's plenty of OSR further east and I know
beekeepers moved hives from west to east for it.

Summary:

There would thus appear to be incontrovertible evidence that resistance to
Bayvarol is spreading in the UK, in exactly the same way that the non
resistant mites spread.

It would also seem to be the case that stronger synthetic chemicals are in
use in the UK to combat the resistant mites, but this has not yet been
confirmed. We await comment on this.

I believe that the time has come to take this resistance problem seriously.
We should take a leaf out of New Zealand's book and urgently put in place
plans to disseminate information on non synthetic chemical treatments
widely. It would be a great pity, and those organisations in charge of
beekeeping in these islands, would not be easily forgiven by beekeepers, if
we ended up in the situation which now obtains in America, with resistance
to every synthetic chemical they can throw at the mite and seriously
polluted hives as a consequence. And the guilt of the beekeeping
associations will not be diminished by virtue of the fact that they had two
headlines, one from America (how not to do it), and the other from New
Zealand (how to do it), and both were ignored.

Comments from beekeeping associations in Ireland (FIBKA) and the UK please?

Sincerely
Tom Barrett
Dublin
Ireland