end for SHB?

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iann41

House Bee
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quite a lot now
Just been reading the latest edition of New Scientist (International) magazine and there was a short article about the Small Hive Beetle. Apparently, scientists have taken a protein from the venom of the Funnel web spider and are using this to control the beetle. They say it does no harm to bee or human and is affective on both larva and adult SHB.
 
Not the end, just a bandaid .
Does the article not mention the potential for developing resistance?
 
Depends how the venom effects the beetle a bit like how oxalic treatments work on mites as against chemical treatments such as apistan or apivar
 
Ian123 said:
Depends how the venom effects the beetle a bit like how oxalic treatments work on mites as against chemical treatments such as apistan or apivar
Click to expand...

The funnel-web spider venom contains a compound known as δ-atracotoxin, an ion channel inhibitor, which makes the venom highly toxic for humans and other primates.....

Link to article if possible?
 
Cheers said:
The funnel-web spider venom contains a compound known as δ-atracotoxin, an ion channel inhibitor, which makes the venom highly toxic for humans and other primates.....

Link to article if possible?
Click to expand...

That might knock the precautions you have to take and the protective gear you have to wear when sublimating oxalic completely into a cocked hat
 
I've ordered some funnel webs off the Internet.
 
Cheers said:
The funnel-web spider venom contains a compound known as δ-atracotoxin, an ion channel inhibitor, which makes the venom highly toxic for humans and other primates.....

Link to article if possible?
Click to expand...

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10340-019-01143-3
https://www.newscientist.com/articl...pider-venom-kills-pests-without-harming-bees/

Pay per View though

This is the New Scientist article


A bite from a funnel web spider delivers neurotoxins that can kill an adult in hours, or a child in minutes. Their fangs are so sharp and powerful that they can pierce fingernails. Yet they might turn out to be our friends in the fight against the small hive beetle, a dangerous new threat to bees.

In southern Africa, where it originates, the small hive beetle – Aethina tumida – is just a minor pest. African honeybees defend their nests so aggressively, and keep them so tidy, that the invader rarely gets a foothold. Outside Africa, however, nests of the more laidback European honeybee (Apis mellifera) are often devastated by the beetle and its larvae, which devour the honey, pollen and brood, destroy the combs and sometimes introduce diseases.

A. tumida was first found in the US in 1998, and has since established itself in North America and Australia, and begun to appear in southern Europe. Some pesticides can kill the beetles, but in doing so they would harm the bees as well.


Now researchers at the University of Durham and at a company called Fera Science, both in the UK, think that funnel web spiders may provide the weapon we need to stop A. tumida. Spider venom contains a cocktail of different ingredients, and we’ve known for a while that one of the funnel web’s toxins – Hv1a – is fatal to most insects, including small hive beetles, but apparently has no effect on bees or humans. The trouble was that Hv1a needs to be injected.

Flower power

“When the spider makes an injection it goes straight to the circulatory system, then to the central nervous system,” says Elaine Fitches, whose team conducted the research. If beetles or their larvae simply swallow the toxin, it quickly degrades in the gut and has little effect.

Fitches and her team appear to have solved the problem, however, by binding Hv1a to another molecule found in the common snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis, which effectively carries it through the gut barrier. In the lab, they fed the “fusion protein” in a sugar solution to beetles and their larvae.

After two days the larvae started “writhing”. Within a week, both larvae and adults were all dead. They also placed beetle eggs on a piece of honeycomb containing bee brood, which was then sprayed with the new compound. The honeycomb and bees survived virtually untouched, and most of the new beetle larvae died. Even when honeybees were anaesthetised and delicately injected with the fusion protein, at least 90% survived.

Research is at an early stage, but it is possible that a whole range of biopesticides could eventually emerge from spider venom, by binding different toxins to other proteins in a similar way. “I was absolutely chuffed to bits with these results,” Fitches says.

Journal reference: Journal of Pest Science, DOI: 10.1007/s10340-019-01143-3



Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/articl...lls-pests-without-harming-bees/#ixzz60BoTFx6A
 
Last edited:
Erichalfbee said:
That might knock the precautions you have to take and the protective gear you have to wear when sublimating oxalic completely into a cocked hat
Click to expand...

Spiders of any significant size and particularly those that bite really freak me out ... I nearly wet myself today when I was driving back from the local Asda and one the size of small mouse crept out of the heater vent and started walking towards me over the top of the dashboard ...

Had to stop and help it out of the car ..

I won't be using spider venom on anything in a hurry ...
 
pargyle said:
Spiders of any significant size and particularly those that bite really freak me out ... I nearly wet myself today when I was driving back from the local Asda and one the size of small mouse crept out of the heater vent and started walking towards me over the top of the dashboard ...

Had to stop and help it out of the car ..

I won't be using spider venom on anything in a hurry ...
Click to expand...

Don't worry Pargye... it is only the spider protein and snowdrop juice mixed together and sprayed over the SHB.

But there is a new spiderproof suit with gloves and booties available from our online shop at £699.99 made in six off the shelf sizes and four colours ( + VAT & P&P) a snip... and you could also use it for beekeeping by changing to the easy to zip on beelux transparent hood.

Chons da
 
Cheers said:
Don't worry Pargye... it is only the spider protein and snowdrop juice mixed together and sprayed over the SHB.

But there is a new spiderproof suit with gloves and booties available from our online shop at £699.99 made in six off the shelf sizes and four colours ( + VAT & P&P) a snip... and you could also use it for beekeeping by changing to the easy to zip on beelux transparent hood.

Chons da
Click to expand...

Strikes me you are trying to muscle in on my lucrative market place... I might have to send the boys round ....there's rules amongst enterpeneurs yer know ?
 
pargyle said:
I nearly wet myself today when I was driving back from the local Asda
Click to expand...
asda has a similar effect on me - I try and avoid the establishment at all costs, the 'meeters' make my skin crawl, and things get even worse when I step inside
 
jenkinsbrynmair said:
asda has a similar effect on me - I try and avoid the establishment at all costs, the 'meeters' make my skin crawl, and things get even worse when I step inside
Click to expand...
Most supermarkets have a similar effect on me but the antidote is when 'er indoors says 'while you are out can you just pick up some...'. Bigger fear factor !
 
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