Keith G. Benson said:
>> Not snide, but you are missing the main point...
...and Peter Borst said:
> Keith underscores several issues. One, if you are going to make a
> statement, you should try to back it up...
The only "point" I can recall (and the root cause of all the gnashing of teeth
and rending of garments) was a reference that Dee Lusby made to an ABJ
article about residues in beeswax. Correct?
I wonder if I can find the citation you want in less time than you have
consumed muttering about the lack of a citation, the "proper" places
to look for citations, and the "correct" way to contribute to a discussion group.
Just to keep things fair, I won't use anything other than this beat-up 4-year old
Palm Pilot and Google. Further, I am currently sitting in the Delta Crown Room
at the Atlanta airport, so I have the additional handicaps of a semi-flaky wireless
connection, no reference materials at hand, and a temptingly large supply of (free!)
Glenfiddich within easy reach.
My plane home boards in 20 minutes.
I've had two drinks, and have started on a third...
Am I worried? Not even a tiny little bit!
Nothing up my sleeves, and at no time will my fingers leave my hands...
Hours
Mins
Seconds Activities and Comments
------------- ------------------------------------
00:00:01 I enter the terms "Wax contamination"
and "American Bee Journal" into Google.
00:00:02 Google yields 153 hits, which you can see here
http://www.google.com/search?q=Wax+contamination+%22American+Bee+Journal
00:00:04 The second item is something from APIS,
http://apis.ifas.ufl.edu/apis_2000/apjun_2000.htm
and Malcom Sanford is known for being accurate and
conservative in his newsletter. A 100% crud-free zone. It says:
"...Wax contamination has become a serious problem in Europe,
but there are no studies on this phenomenon in the United States
to my knowledge < http://apis.ifas.ufl.edu/apis96/apaug96.htm#1 >
Nevertheless, there is continuing information that sublethal doses
of pesticides in colonies may have long-term adverse consequences
< http://apis.ifas.ufl.edu/apis_2000/apjan_2000.htm#2 >
00:00:08 Interesting. Let's check out Dr. Sandford's first link
http://apis.ifas.ufl.edu/apis96/apaug96.htm#1
(Thank the Lord for giving us cut-and-paste, cause all I
have is this little stylus and a screen no larger than my coaster...)
"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."
00:00:36 Let's also look at the other link provided by Dr. Sanford
< http://apis.ifas.ufl.edu/apis_2000/apjan_2000.htm#2 >
"Dr. Currie says that queen mortality and supersedure increases shown
by the study require consumers to have to purchase from 40 to 52-percent
more replacement queens than if tabs were not employed. Given this and
the fact that they do not ensure mite-free replacement queens, he does not
recommend their continued use. The results presented here provide further
evidence that fluvalinate may indeed be responsible for so-called
"queen problems" beekeepers have seen in the recent past.
The drone situation appears to also somewhat reflect that of queens. Dr. T.
Rinderer and colleagues at the Baton Rouge Bee Laboratory studied the '
effect of fluvalinate (Apistan) on developing drones (American Bee Journal,
Vol. 139 (1999), No. 2, pp. 134-139. Although the number of drones produced
was no different, survival varied significantly. Drones emerging from control
colonies where fluvalinate had not been applied were mostly alive (97.5 percent),
but those from colonies treated with Apistan registered a lower (86.1 percent)
survival ratio."
00:00:43 So far, we have quite a few citations that appear to support
Dee's statement, and one that I suspect is the exact
citation at issue, but let's continue... The 6th item looks
interesting, since it appears to be a citation to a paper...
http://www.auth.gr/agro/beelab/gr/search_pub_con.htm
Ohhhh... lookie here... we hit a rich vein of pay-dirt...
"Residues
1. Thrasyvoulou A, M. Ifantidis, N. Pappas, K. Simmons (1985).
Malathion residus in Greek honey. Apidologie 16(1):89-94.
2. Thrasyvoulou A. and Pappas N (1988). Contamination of honey
and wax with malathion an coumaphos used against the Varroa mite.
J. Apic. Res. 27(1):55-61
3. Tsigouri, A., O. Menkisoglou and A. Thrasyvoulou, (1997),
Fluvalinate persistence in honey, Programme and summaries of the
reports of the XXXVth International Apicultural Congress, pp. 96-97,
Antwerp, Belgium 1-6/9/1997.
4. Menkissoglu-Spiroudi, G. Diamantidis, V.Georgiou, A. Thrasyvoulou
(2000) Determination of malathion, coumaphos and fluvalinate residues
in honey by gas chromatography with nitrogen-phosphorus or electron
capture detectors J. AOAC Int 83(1):178-182
5. Tsigouri A, O.Menkissoglu-Spiroudi, G. Diamantidis, A. Thrasyvoulou
(2000) Determenation of fluvalinate residues in beeswax by gas
chromatography with electron-capture detection. J. AOAC Int 83(5): 1225-1228
6. Tsigouri A. Menkissoglu S., Diamantidis,. & A. Thrasyvoulou (2001)
The fate of the Varroacide fluvalinate in honey and wax J. A.O.A.C
(accepted date 20/11/99)
7. Tsigouri A, U. Menkissoglu-Spiroudi & A. Thrasyvoulou (2001) Study of
tau- fluvalinate persistence in honey. Pest Management Sci 57:467-471
8. Menkissoglu-Spiroudi U. A.D. Tsigouri, Gr C. Diamantidis and A.T.
Thrasyvoulou (2001) Residues in honey and beeswax caused by
beekeeping treatments. Fresenius Environmental Bulletin 10(5):445-450"
00:00:56 I'm gonna declare a winner at this point.
It seems reasonable to conclude that the article that Dee referred
to was one she read in Bee Culture and/or in the AUSTRALIAN
Bee Journal rather than the American Bee Journal. You can now
go get the June 1996 issue of Bee Culture, and read the article.
Regardless of what Dee read or not, we have a number of interesting citations
that can be instructive in evaluating the claim that residues from "treatments"
can show up in beeswax. It appears on the surface that they can and do.
If you don't agree, we can continue down the list of Google hits, do more searches,
or even (gasp!) trot down to the library tomorrow, as I suggested before.
Rather than arguing and posturing over side-issues and semantics,
or lecturing all and sundry on "how to post to a discussion list", why
not take a hint now and again? Why do you think I take the time to
give such hints when I could be reading a good book?
00:01:42 Now I just press "send", and I can go back to reading my book...
jim
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