MANAGE VARROA - REMOVE DRONE BROOD

摘要

February in the North Country always raises concerns about Winter losses; and once again, we are hoping that Winter will not be too harsh on our bees. Of course, successful wintering depends on many things, two of the more important being the strengthand health of a colony's worker population in the Fall. In Ithaca, NY we like to see healthy bees boiling out of two deeps or bearded up on the fronts of the hives after removing the crop at the end of the goldenrod flow. One of the biggest obstacles tothe maintenance of strong, healthy colonies is the parasitic mite V. destructor. Mite damage can occur for several reasons, including pesticide resistance in the mite population, heavy re-infestation pressure from nearby colonies, failure to monitor mite levels, and failure to treat often enough or at the right time. When mite populations rise to dangerous levels, a number of symptoms become apparent. These include deformed wings, deteriorating brood, bees crawling at the entrance, unable to fly and declining worker populations. These symptoms, collectively designated parasitic mite syndrome (Shimanuki et al. 1994; Fig. 2a, 2b), are largely the result of elevated virus levels associated with V. destructor. Unfortunately, by the time you see them, your colonies have already been damaged, and their ability to survive the Winter may be compromised.