Hi All
 
I have enjoyed reading all the posts on bee mites and have thought
about it a bit.
 
Being a reasonably warm country, south africa has a problem with
fleas. Many people use preparations containing I believe hormones
which disrupt the breading cycle of the fleas resulting in the
offspring being infertile - this means that you get an initial huge
population of infertile bugs that mate with each other, and fertile
bugs, all resulting in a waste of effort/chain terminating effect.
(Examples of trade names are Ovitrol, Syflea, Frontline - all have
web pages - discovered as was searhing for a picture of a flea to
send to my girlfriend flii) This would be a great way of getting rid
of mites in bees - one or two infected bees with infertile mites
would start a chain reaction killing of millions of mites.
 
In Australia I believe the CSIRO there was also researching and using
at one stage a form of biological control for flies where female
flies were irradiated, making them infertile and then dropped from
planes over infested areas, resuuulting in males mating and wasting
their time - birthcontrol/bugcontrol scenario.
 
Now, both of these systems are fantastically successful and have
little in the way of scary side effects (like those of for instance
fluvalinate which is quite a good flea poison I believe).
Unfortunately they are very effective and wipe out a pest, meaning
that your trusty agricultural drug pusher cures you and you don't
come back for the next shot. On the other hand, if it/he/she/they
sell you something that is easy to use (like
cocaine/fluvalinate/heroine/DDT) works fast and wears of just as fast
then they have a good addict, scared to venture off and try something
else - and spends lots of money on their product. One can be a
physical adict or an economic/outlook addict.
 
A good example of this is the cotton industry. For years treatment of
bolworm uused organophosphate poisons. In Eurasia people will be
having babies with four arms and half a head, or the other wayy
arouund for the next two hndred years because of this mentality. On
the other hand, a project to produce bolworm viruses in yeast, that
can then be brewed in a pot by some peasand and sprayyed on
their crops gets not funding - reason - it is not economicallyy
adictive and generates no major cash incentive.
 
So, my admiration goes out to Dr Rodriguez and his friends who have
tested a system that offers an alternative to the wares pushed by
an industry which is both good and evil, giving it a good jab in it's
vital organ (ophosphate)'s. The more alternatives that cost next to
nothing, the better for the health of the next generation.
 
Keep well
 
Garth
 
---
Garth Cambray       Kamdini Apiaries
15 Park Road        Apis melifera capensis
Grahamstown         800mm annual precipitation
6139
Eastern Cape
South Africa               Phone 27-0461-311663
 
On holiday for a few months     Rhodes University
Which means: working with bees 15 hours a day!
Interests: Fliis and bees
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this post in no way
reflect those of Rhodes University.