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Iowa Honey Producers Association |
The Buzz Newsletter January 2007 |
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IPM How can we as IHPA members be better beekeepers? This last summer at our summer field day, if you came you learned about the life cycle of the varroa mite, and how each mite can have ten or more brood cycles in its life with three to five mites per cycle. IPM is learning or knowing your ENEMY! Integrated pest management (IPM) is a decision making process that makes use of the selection, integration and implementation of the best methods of pest control available. This means that one first seeks to use and encourage natural control mechanisms including predators, parasites, and diseases that might control the pest. It also includes controlling or taking advantage of the environment. When necessary {ONLY WHEN NECESSARY} one can also use a chemical but then the emphasis is on selecting the safest one available. IPM is a common sense approach to controlling pest, and in the case of US the BEEKEEPER it forces on to become familiar with the diseases, pest and predator of the honey bees so as to make the best long-range decisions.
Remember that varroa can live or coexist with honey bees at a low level so we don’t need to exterminate the mite, but rather just keep its level low. How can we do this? Screened bottom boards with a sticky board to help you find out how big of a mite problem you have. Drone brood trapping and freezing. Better queens or mite resistant queens. There are many things that one can do to slow down and even eliminate some mites in the process if we just stop and think about it. Use a powder sugar dusting! The most important thing is to stop and think what you’re doing and be prepared to take control. Where did I find all this information? Stop and think? (1) ABC and XYZ of bee culture (2) The American Bee Journal Dec. 2006 page 1035-1041! Not really hard you just need to know where to look. If you don’t have a subscription to either The American Bee Journal or The Bee Culture magazine you should get one or the other, or try them both. By the book ABC and XYZ of bee culture. In the evaluation form, from the annual meeting I got about ten things that people wish to know more about, and I will try to cover one or two each month. I hope this will help both me and the people who wanted to know. I’m also looking for help in deciding what to do for the summer field day, because I’m not sure what to do. Any useful help will be considered.
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