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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Bob Harrison <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 20 Jun 2002 08:20:28 -0500
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Hello Keith and All,

You might find the answers you seek in the new issue of the American Bee
Journal vol. 142 no. 7 or July 2002 pg. 480. The article is titled "Answers
to the Puzzling Distribution of Africanized Bees in the U.S." and  written
by Villa, Rindered  and Stelzer of the Baton Rouge Bee Lab.

The article does a excellent job of documenting  AHB  spread.

If the hypothesis of these researchers is correct then instead of only cold
winters limiting AHB AHB may may be limited  by Temperature, rainful ,
humidity etc.

I personally do not buy the hypothesis as THE  ONLY  answer why AHB has not
spread further. Even the writters admit there are counties next to each
other in Texas with exact same weather patterns and  one has documented AHB
and the other does not. The article says there are still a huge number of
traps for AHb being monitored.

I  believe the article is in depth and well written with information we have
never seen before but still lacks the concrete  reason why AHB is not
documented in Florida today.

Not one U.S. researcher predicted   the  stop of the spread of AHb in the
U.S. like it has.

To add support to the weather related hypothesis we know the small hive
beetle problem slowed way down in the southeast with the drought conditions
and many beekeepers  claimed  their home remidies were the  reason. The
rains came and SHB was back with a vengence. Hmmm.

My friends in Florida  have been emailing me about their SHB problems. Looks
like we have got a serious pest on our hands in the southeast.

So far all I have been able to come up with for small hive beetle is to
lower humidity in honey processing area, remove and process honey faster and
KEEP STRONG HIVES with reduced entrances when honey flow is not on.

Small hive beetle could be a major problem (mating nucs) for queen breeders
in the southeast once established to its full potential in my opinion.

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

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