Bee Health Research (National Honey Board Production Research)
2005 Research Projects
Ozone as a fumigant for honey bee supers and comb
Rosalind James
ARS / Utah State Univ.
The researcher has plans to publish the results of this project. See the following link for industry communication about the project - http://westernfarmpress.com/news/hives-ozone-0516/.
2005 Research Projects
Effects of mineral oil and essential oils on honey bee worker brood and colony varroa mite
Jeff Pettis
USDA-ARS Bee Research Laboratory
Effects of mineral oil and essential oils on honey bee worker brood and colony varroa mite populations
This project received continued funding by the NHB in 2006
2005 Research Projects
Microbial control of varroa with the fungus Metarhizium Anisopliae
Rosalind James, Gerald Hayes and Jarrod Leland
Florida Department of Agriculture
“Field Trials on the Microbial control of varroa with the fungus Metarhizium Anisopliae,” American Bee Journal, November 2006, pp. 968-972.
Technical Abstract
A variety of chemical controls products are currently available to the beekeeping industry for varroa mite control. However, we find that beekeepers are frequently dissatisfied with the level of mite control they are able to achieve, and a biological control agent could potentially offer an entirely new approach to this problem. The fungus Metarhizium anisopliae is known to be pathogenic to varroa mites, and we previously conducted several field trials with this fungus in bee colonies, but obtained poor, if somewhat variable, results. We have decided that it is time to present our most recent results to the beekeeping industry, due to the great interest that this project has generated. We present here two large field trials designed to determine the best application strategy for the fungus. None of our experiments yielded significant mite control. For both experiments, we used application rates that we thought would be more than adequate. First we tried several very different application methods, yet did not obtain good control. Next, we increase the dose nearly nine-fold and sprayed frames in colonies with an aqueous suspension of spores. Some infected mites were recovered from the hives, but the spores survived very poorly after application. Before a microbial control of varroa product can be developed, more work is needed on production methods to produce a spore with an adequate shelf-life. Another possible reason for the poor field control may be that our treatments failed to get the spores into direct contact with the mites, a condition required for infection to occur. The mites are protected from exposure to spores when they are in the brood cells, and when varroa are on the bodies of adult bees, thus it is difficult to get the spores directly in contact with the mite cuticle.
2005 Research Projects
Testing Oxalic acid for varroa control in dry vs. humid climates
Diana Sammataro
Carl Hayden Honey Bee Research Center
“Comparing Oxalic Acid and Sucrocide Treatments for Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidae) Control Under Desert Conditions,” Journal of Economic Entomology, Volume 101, Number 4, August 2008 , pp. 1057-1061
Abstract
The effectiveness of oxalic acid (OA) and Sucrocide (S) (AVA Chemical Ventures, L.L.C. Portsmouth, NH) in reducing populations of the varroa mite Varroa destructor Anderson & Trueman (Acari: Varroidae) in honey bee, Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae) colonies was measured under the desert conditions of Arizona, USA. OA and S were applied three times 7 d apart. A 3.2% solution of OA was applied in sugar syrup via a large volume syringe, trickling 5 ml per space between frames in the colony. S was applied at a concentration of 0.625% (mixed with water), according to the label directions, using a compressed air Chapin sprayer at 20 psi to apply 59 ml per frame space. Varroa mites, collected on a sticky board before, during, and after the treatments, were counted to assess the effectiveness of the treatments. This study showed that a desert climate zone did not confer any positive or negative results on the acaricidal properties of OA. Even with brood present in colonies, significant varroa mite mortality occurred in the OA colonies. In contrast, we found that Sucrocide was not effective as a mite control technique. Despite its ability to increase mite mortality in the short-term, Varroa mite populations measured posttreatment were not affected any more by Sucrocide than by no treatment at all.
2005 Research Projects
Honey Industry
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