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Date: | Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:42:28 -0600 |
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Hello Juanse & All,
> Local beekeeper groups and scientists from CSIRO and the Queensland Brain
> Institute (QBI) are worried the Varroa mite, fatal to the European honey
> bee, will soon enter Australia.
Only now getting worried?
One of the largest commercial beeks in Australia has traveled to my house
three different times and spent several days each trip.
His main reason is to learn ways to survive varroa and last trip nosema
ceranae. My beekeeper friends in Hawaii I believe really thought they would
never get varroa. At least my beekeeper friends in Australia are not so
naive.
A saying in the game of "Chess":
Never underestimate your opponent"
Underestimate control of varroa and varroa will cost you half your bees the
first go around. Commercial beeks need to get a approved product for varroa
control in advance of arrival. If U.S. beeks made a mistake other than
underestimating varroa it was not having at least two approved mitacides
ready for use when varroa arrived ( notice I did not say *if*).
I still ponder why beeks in the U.S. lost half their bees when tracheal
mites arrived and then half when varroa arrived. Beeks around the world had
been fighting varroa for many years and many forms of control were known
about.
Consider:
Varroa had been in those hives for around 3 years in Hawaii before
found.(source USDA-ARS)
Check your hives yourself for varroa. Try to catch varroa early. Once varroa
is found your management has to change. At first varroa is very lethal in
bees which have never seen a varroa mite. We treated three times a year at
first and reinfestation killed many a hive even after we had just finished a
treatment.
I had trouble and I had studied varroa and control for over ten years before
the first varroa was found in the U.S..
I had many friends which took Grandpa beeks advice and let the susceptible
die off and breed from survivors. Doing so drove most into bankruptcy or
cost a large sum of money to rebuild. Many found raising queens was not as
easy *large scale* as they had thought.
Every commercial beek in Australia should by now have a plan of action if
(when) varroa is found in Australia.
bob
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