Might Mighty Mite Have Met Its Match?

Research is under way to genetically tweak Varroa mites in such a way as to cause them to "self-destruct."

Much as I'd love to see an end to the serious troubles Varroa destructor brings to honeybees, I'm always leery of this level of human intervention—so rarely do such things go as planned; so often do they bring an avalanche of unanticipated (and unwanted) consequences.

Take a look at this recent news item about the Varroa destructor self-destruction study and let me know what you think.

Worrisome News from Hawaii

The latest "Catch the Buzz" missive from Bee Culture brings the following depressing/distressing news to our in-box, via Honolulu Star Bulletin article by Rod Thompson:

HILO » The state Department of Agriculture is warning Big Island residents not to eat wild honey collected within five miles of Hilo Harbor during the next three weeks while it attempts to eradicate varroa mites.

The mites are tiny, spider-like parasites that infect honeybees.
Since the mites were first detected on the Big Island on Aug. 20, officials have made several unsuccessful attempts to eradicate them, said Lyle Wong, head of the state Plant Industry Division.

Following those failures, the department is now setting out 200 baiting stations with low concentrations of an insecticide called fipronil, he said.

Fipronil has been widely used since 1996 in many crop and noncrop applications, Wong said. To use it to kill infected bees, the Department of Agriculture had to declare a special 15-day "crisis exemption" from restrictions on fipronil by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Wong said.

If bees near the harbor are not killed, the parasitic mites could spread to the entire island and cause a crash in the wild bee population.

In New Zealand and parts of the United States, varroa mites have caused the disappearance of more than 90 percent of wild bees.

A great deal of agriculture depends on bees for pollination. If wild ones are gone, professional beekeepers can provide services with "managed hives," but that adds cost to agricultural production, Wong said.

Commercial beekeeping in Hawaii, which includes honey production and the raising of queen bees for sale around the world, is valued at $4 million per year.

Beekeeping Backwards & Looking Forward

Lots to look forward to around here: namely, two packages of bees to be hived this weekend and—next week—the launch of a new series on this blog called "BeekSpeak," featuring interviews with beekeepers around the block and around the globe. My first interviewee is Romanian beekeeper and bee-blogger Gheorge Tamas.

During the interview, Gheorge mentioned a resource I'd never heard about called Principles of Beekeeping Backwards.

It's a challenging and excellent essay by Charles Simon, a writer and self-described "bee-removal expert" in California who died in 2007. I highly recommend the article, which is archived on the resource-rich Beesource website. See also: More Beekeeping Backwards: I Owe a Huge Debt to Varroa.

Honeybees Removing Varroa Mites Through Grooming

In this amazing video, you'll witness what is known in beekeeper parlance as "hygienic behavior"—honeybees grooming themselves in an effort to remove the dreaded varroa mites from their bodies.

Amateur Hour Carpentry (The Spirit of Duchamp)

Amateur Hour Carpentry, LLC was open for business yesterday, when a burst of energy sent me on a sawing-drilling-wire-cutting frenzy in pursuit of my very own top bar holder.

When you're inspecting the combs, it's nice to have a way to briefly secure each top bar outside the hive, so you can see what's going on and, if necessary, perform "management tasks" like cutting off comb that's adhering to the edges of the hive or culling drone comb (an organic management option for reducing populations of the dreaded Varroa destructor mite, a honeybee parasite and disease vector). (You gotta love these Latin names—they don't mess around.)

Also, the combs get kind of heavy when they're filled with honey and brood, so if you're working on your own with the hives, a top bar holder comes in handy.

The nice people on my Top Bar Hive discussion group suggested various approaches for fashioning a top bar holder and I have seen some handsome ones during searches on the web. But having zero carpentry skills (and way too many tools), I went for the super-easy design in Phil Chandler's neat little book, The Barefoot Beekeeper, available as a free download. All you need are a few pieces of scrap wood, two heavy-gauge coat hangers, and the will to fail where others have succeeded.

The result is something along the lines of a Duchamp Readymade, no?
Disclosure: Phil Chandler's version is a lot more elegant than mine, but hey, Amateur Hour Carpentry, LLC always lives up to its name!