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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Jerry Bromenshenk <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 9 May 2018 01:48:39 -0400
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Both semi-volatile and volatile organic chemicals will end up in wax.  In fact, dry cleaner, industrial solvents, and the BTEX chemicals from gasoline show up at high levels in the wax of urban hives, especially those near highways.  Pouring gasoline, kerosene, lacquer thinner into hives virtually guarantees high residue levels in the wax and maybe even the propolis coating of boxes, if not the wood parts themselves.  Knowing  how high solvent levels can be in urban hives, I can't imagine what the levels would be from directly pouring solvent into hives.  Unless you want to speed up and improve the burning of all of the equipment, I wouldn't do it.  Gasoline and lacquer thinner are dangerous around any flame - bee smoker, cigarette smoker.  Plus, I don't like breathing any of these any more than necessary.
To assume that these solvents are more humane to the bees than C02, seems to be opinion.  Bees dwell in hives with relatively high C02.  C02 is probably the least damaging anesthetic used for contact pesticide exposure tests - a bit of C02 puts bees to sleep in a few seconds, and they wake in a couple of minutes.  One drop of toluene in a full-size hive with a large population of bees sets off an almost immediate, loud roaring response.  Bee sounds change with the category of chemical, and bees can detect these chemicals at pptr, even parts per quadrillion levels in the air - so I don't know that the bee would consider death by solvent to be humane.From behavioral observation, shaking the bees into a screen package and putting into a freezer may be the least stressful. Bees slow down, then become immobile, and eventually die in a day or two if they are not on honey combs.  For PERS assays, we chill the bees for a short period to slow them down before placing individual bees in their harnesses.  Done properly, it doesn't appear to harm the bees.In the old day, beekeepers in northern states used potassium cyanide - it was banned due to risk to humans.  One of our beekeepers accidentally killed his dog.  Fastest way to kill bees is heat prostration.  The old style Vapona pesticide strips also did a good job, and months later, still did a good job of killing whole colonies.  I learned that one the hard way - it partitioned from the strip into the air in a storage facility and then into the wax of stored extracted combs.  Months later, after airing out for a couple of days, the  wax still had enough chemical to kill a colony over night.

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