How to stop the spread?

[Anduril]

Import resistant queens and teach selective breeding toward resistance. Of course.

Have you thought about joining the Flow Hive forum and suggest importing queens?

 

[Ian123]

Have you thought about joining the Flow Hive forum and suggest importing queens?

I’d suggest many flow hives are stocked with imported queens or their progeny…..let’s face it many don’t know anything about bees let alone the origin

 

[Beesnaturally]

You can lead a horse to water....

 

[magor]

Import resistant queens and teach selective breeding toward resistance. Of course.

e

drones do pass the immunity not Q , if anything is for selective breeding , drones is

Q is for non selective raise, like when bad

... and the horse ll drink

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

You can lead a horse to water....

but a pencil must be led

 

[Beesnaturally]

Australian and New Zealand: 'let's stop all imports of people until we have raised resistance (the COVID).'

It mostly worked. There was no horrific collapse. Things are now back to normal.

Raising resistance is simply the immunological approach to solving a disease problem. It can be done in a scientific, carefully controlled way. It seems dumb not to be at least considering it.

 

[Antipodes]

At least 600 hives now destroyed as the investigations continue and detections increase. A huge effort underway ...

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-30/varroa-mite-red-zone-added-near-newcastle/101198984

 

[JamezF]

At least 600 hives now destroyed as the investigations continue and detections increase. A huge effort underway ...

That must be utterly heartbreaking for some of the beekeepers involved

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

That must be utterly heartbreaking for some of the beekeepers involved

James

and too little too late I think.
Better to bite the bullet now and look at ways to control and live with it. Not just stick heads in the sand and think this drastic action is the answer.

 

[Ian123]

and too little too late I think.
Better to bite the bullet now and look at ways to control and live with it. Not just stick heads in the sand and think this drastic action is the answer.

Not quite the case they’ve managed to stop varroa twice before. There’ll also be state restrictions on cross border movements western Aus is almost a separate country and it would be some time before it reached there.

 

[Peter Welch]

Here’s an interesting link to The Purple Project, ironically pre-varroa appearance in Australia 2022.

The Artificial intelligence hive. Automated varroa mite surveillance in Australia.

 

[JamezF]

Hmmm. There's stuff in there that makes me wonder...

Initially, the comment about using purple because bees can see into the ultra-violet. Just because they can see in ultra-violet means nothing in respect of how they respond to purple as opposed to, say, green or blue. I don't get that at all.

I also wonder how many mites actually leave the hive on bees thereby enabling the system to count them. Clearly some do, but I look for mites on every foraging bee I see and I've never seen one. I've seen them on bees in swarms, but never on a forager. So are they common enough to give a meaningful result? It makes me realise that there's a bit of the process I don't understand. If a forager carries a mite back to a hive, how does the mite make it into a cell to reproduce? Does it climb off and wander around to find the brood? Generally I thought foragers didn't really get involved with the brood directly.

The idea of segregating incoming bees that have mites is an interesting one and I can see how that might be done, but will it genuinely help? Surely all it takes is the failure to detect a single mite and the hive is "infected" though you may not know about it until weeks later?

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

how does the mite make it into a cell to reproduce? Does it climb off and wander around to find the brood? Generally I thought foragers didn't really get involved with the brood directly.

They hop onto another bee to hitch a ride. Foragers after all pass nectar to house bees

 

[Newbeeneil]

They hop onto another bee to hitch a ride. Foragers after all pass nectar to house bees

And I believe varroa have be observed dropping of a forager onto a flower then hitching a lift on the next visitor.

 

[Wilco]

Takes a photo every second.... Based on my bees they'll miss some.

 

[Antipodes]

They are trying to find the edge of the spread.

They hop onto another bee to hitch a ride. Foragers after all pass nectar to house bees

2 minutes 10 seconds. Quicker than the eye.

 

[roche]

It surprises me that NZ managed to import varroa given the bio-hazard measures I saw as a tourist 10? 15? years ago.

There is dark conversation amongst NZ beeks about an un-named scoundrel who illegally imported a few bees. I don't know if it was simply a Queen or a package...

 

[Antipodes]

They're not finding any more varroa at the moment, but have discovered Braula now on the mainland.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09...la-fly-in-nsw-illegal-hive-movement/101404814

 

[Ian123]

They're not finding any more varroa at the moment, but have discovered Braula now on the mainland.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09...la-fly-in-nsw-illegal-hive-movement/101404814

It’s ok they’ll cure braula when they finally get and have to treat for varroa