Date: Fri 16-Aug-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDREA

Quick Words:

bees-Gaeta-honey-gardening

Full Text:

Decline Of The Honeybee: A Cause For Concern?

B Y A NDREA Z IMMERMANN

Although other insects can pollinate flowers, the most efficient transmitter

is the European honeybee. But it appears to be in decline due to foulbrood and

the fairly recent arrival of two mites that attack and can kill the bees.

The Varroa mite is an external mite that attacks the bee's skin; the tracheal

mite lives in the air tubes of the insect and eventually suffocates it. "Take

those factors and add them in with over-wintering problems that can happen and

there could be a declining population in certain areas," said State

Entymologist Louis Magnarelli. "We suspect the wild honeybees are being

affected in the same way."

In 1995 there were 434 beekeepers registered with the state. Of their 2,950

colonies, 1263 were examined by the entymologist's staff and 551 had Varroa

mites. The mites, he said, are found in nearly all areas of the state.

Beekeepers treat their hives with chemicals at certain times of year to help

control the mite, but "even if you do that, the mites are still there," said

Dr Magnaerlli.

Foulbrood was found in Ashford, Chaplin, Coventry, Danbury, Eastford, East

Hamden, Haddam, Preston, Sprague, Thompson, Wilton, Windham, and Woodstock.

Hives can be treated to prevent foulbrood but once a colony is infested with

the bacteria, the hive has to be destroyed. "A honeybee could fly five or six

miles. It's the males that, when they go out, don't necessarily come back to

the same hive. The female, the worker bees, will," said Dr Magnarelli. "The

male is instrumental in moving around the bacteria and parasitic mites."

The Connecticut Farm Bureau reported in its Summer 1996 newsletter that there

has been a possible 40 to 50 percent reduction of honeybees due to the harsh

winter and the mites. But Dominic Gaeta of Candlewood Valley Apiary said there

is no immediate cause for alarm as far as crops are concerned.

"This is something that has come on gradually - this has been happening since

1991. And the beekeepers have been dealing with it," said Mr Gaeta, who has

been a beekeeper himself for 30 years. "Farmers are taking over the challenge

themselves [and are keeping colonies]. Mother Nature is giving us this

problem. The farmer is tuned in to nature and used to dealing with the

elements...

"Beekeeping is an integral part of gardening and farming and that has been

taken for granted because the feral colonies were out there," said Mr Gaeta.

"Now that there are no feral colonies, people are beginning to notice a

decline. People who have no beekeepers near them have no bees in their

gardens."

Some crops, such as corn, are wind pollinated but bees can help. Others, such

as vine crops, rely on honeybees to cross-pollinated the flowers; if they are

not pollinated the flower will wither without bearing fruit.

"Fruit growers all told me in the spring, when their appleblossoms needed

pollinating, they were able to have adequate numbers of hives brought in by

commercial beekeepers to accomplish that," said Dr Magnarelli.

"It's not a disaster. We can handle it - we have been handling it," said Mr

Gaeta. The increase in the cost of honey not only reflects the expense of

pollination, but also the increase in time necessary to maintain a healthy

colony, he said.