The Buzz Newsletter

August 2006

 

 

Page 7

(continued from page 6)

Royalty was on hand during the field day, (left to right) Teresa Jurchen 2006 American Honey Princess, Diane Jurchen 2006 Southwest Iowa Honey Queen, and Elizabeth Macken 2006 Iowa Honey Queen.

We found out that the varroa mite is a parasite with a life cycle of 80 to 100 days. On a worker bee larva the varroa mite will lay 4-5 eggs, the first egg being a male. And on a drone bee larva the varroa mite will lay 5-6 eggs, the first egg also being a male. After the bee emerges the mite will take 3-5 days to recharge by eating before going into another cell. So in a mite’s lifetime it can reproduce 10 - 14 times. Since the mite goes in cell just before it is capped, you can see the mite’s life cycle is 10 – 13 days to produce 4-6 mites each cycle. This all ties in with IPM ( Intergrated Pest Management). The 4 keys to IPM are: 1 – IDENTIFY 2 – MONITOR 3 – THRESHOLD 4- PRODUCT.

1 – Identify Do you have a mite problem? We did this at the field day by breaking up into 4 groups, doing 3 hands on methods with 8 bee hives. The 3 methods we did are: sticky board, ether roll and powder sugar roll. David also showed us a new method by using windshield washing fluid (the blue cleaner). I liked this method the best. Very easy and inexpensive to do!! Ask someone else who was at the field day their opinion of this method!!

2 - After identifying, you need to monitor your mite population. You need to know your mite population in % of the hive population.

3 – Threshold; how many mites can you have before you need to treat, or is it too late and your bees are going to crash.

4 – Product; if you should decide to treat for mites, your considerations for your product choice should include: easy for the bee keeper to use; safe for both humans and bees; as effective as possible; no residue in honey or bees wax; cost per hive; and number of treatments needed.

Elizabeth Macken, the 2006 Iowa Honey Queen, prepares a smoker during a wonderful field day held July 8th.

Through this field day, I felt I learned more about mite detection and treatment, enjoyed the fellowship of other beekeepers (I got to talk about bees all day, life is good!), and enjoyed a great pot luck with delious home made ice cream! I enjoyed speaker David Vander Dussen . He was very personable with a good sense of humor. Whether or not you use David’s product; mite-away II, (www.miteaway.com) is up to you, but I think I’m going to give it a try.

If you have any other thought on this I’d “bee” happy to hear them.

THANK YOU AND BEE HAPPY!

PAT ENNIS