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Re: World's Beeswax Contamination Increasing
The only obvious thing to add is that honey bees in the US are not native,
but rather imported from Europe. Perhaps if we encouraged the 'locals'
more, we would not be having these mite problems.
Bill & Harvey
SKID zone 6 CT USA
In article <961203230151_73652.1202_DHR81-7@CompuServe.COM>,
73652.1202@compuserve.com (Patricia Dines) wrote:
> News from the Bees/pollinators front (enclosed article).
>
> Apparently, the pesticide that beekeepers are using against the Varroa mite
> (Apistan/fluvalinate) is accumulating at high levels in the beeswax, and there
> is concern both about it harming the bees at those levels (and consumers of
> honey??) but also about Varroa mites developing resistance to the
pesticides...
> (what a surprise! when will we realize that resistance is a _predictable_
> outcome of pesticides, it's only an issue of when it will develop - and
thus at
> the very least their use should be at the absolute minimum to make that
time as
> long as possible. But, no!, we want to put Bt into all our corn...!)
>
> I pass this along for your info. Also, I have some questions:
>
> 1) Does anyone know more about Apistan/fluvalinate and related
pesticides? What
> category of pesticide are they? What are they derived from? What company
> (companies) make them?
>
> 2) Are there natural alternatives? I thought I remembered hearing about
menthol
> or something being used...?
>
> 3) Does anyone know of any studies that examine why the varolla mites became
> such a problem in the first place? As I recall, they were an exotic (foreign)
> mite, at least in the U.S. Is that true? If so, where do they come from? Do
> they have no natural predators anywhere in the world?
>
> One theory I have is that pesticides perhaps knocked out the natural
> mite/predator balance that would've kept them in check. (I'm thinking this
> because of a conversation I had once with an apple farmer who said he stopped
> using mitacides and stopped having problems with mites - he said, because the
> broad-spectrum mitacide was killing both the good and bad mites. (He also
> nurtured his trees more.) ) Another theory I have is that pesticides might've
> weakened the bees and made them more vulnerable than they otherwise would've
> been (because many pesticides harm bees, including weakening them).
>
> Do you know of any study or expert discussion of these notions or other
possible
> links between bees' mite problems and pesticides? If so, I'd very much
> appreciate getting the info. If not, I'd like to suggest it as a worthy
> research subject. We're heading right to a huge crisis on pollinators, which
> will cause a huge crisis in ag and likely cause food prices to skyrocket, so
> getting better understanding of underlying nature of this problem (vs.
just the
> short-term pesticide approach) could make a big difference, literally, for the
> world....
>
> Any input you can offer me would be very much appreciated. And I hope
you find
> the info below useful.
>
> Thanks!
>
> P. Dines
>
> --- FORWARD ---
> From: Rich Winkel, INTERNET:rich%pencil@BROWNVM.brown.edu
> Sender: o-imap@chumbly.math.missouri.edu
> To: Patricia Dines, 73652,1202
> Date: Mon, Dec 2, 1996, 11:08 PM
> Subject: Evidence Indicates World's Beeswax Contamination Increasing
>
> /** headlines: 93.0 **/
> ** Written 6:36 PM Nov 27, 1996 by econet in cdp:headlines **
> /* Written 5:23 PM Nov 26, 1996 by cgilbert@igc.org in haz.forum */
>
> From September 1996 Blazing Tattles**
> All rights reserved.
>
> FOULING THE COLLECTIVE NEST
> THE WORLD'S BEESWAX
> By M. (Tom) Sanford, Ph.D.*
>
> Most beekeeping products are consumable items. They can be looked
> at as transitory (i.e., short-term assets on the beekeeping balance
> sheet). One, however, traditionally has been in the long- term asset
> category. This is beeswax, that marvelous substance only the honey bee
> can produce. Although it can be converted into other products (waxes,
> cosmetics), a huge amount is recycled by the beekeeping industry and
> given back to the industrious insects that made it as foundation for
their nest.
>
> Along with those of honey, beeswax prices have escalated, though
> not necessarily for the same reasons. In the February issue of Bee Biz
> (No. 2, 1996, p. 3), Editor Matthew Allen analyzed this phenomenon. For
> many years, the market was split. Top-quality wax from Africa, the
> Americas and Australia was viewed differently than that of the Far East,
> mostly from China. The latter was often adulterated by paraffin and,
> thus, restricted to polish and candle use. The price differential
> between these two wax sources is now closing, Mr. Allen concludes, as
> demand for use in luxury items, confectionery and fancy food products
> increases, and so the price may remain high for some time. That's the
> good news. The bad news is that the world's beeswax is becoming more
> fouled each day, a trade-off for controlling the Varroa mite.
>
> Ever since beekeepers began using pesticides inside living bee
> colonies (see APIS, 12/87), there have been concerns voiced about colony
> contamination. Most had to do with honey; these are reduced
> considerably now with appropriate use of Apistan. Few, however,
> considered the possible effect of long-term widespread use of the
> contact pesticide fluvalinate on the beeswax supply.
>
> No longer is this the case. Writing in the same issue of Bee Biz
> as Mr. Allen (p. 4) about the 1995 Apimondia meeting in Lau- sanne,
> Switzerland, Clive de Bruyn reported that high residue levels of
> fluvalinate have been found in beeswax. Because of the nature of the
> molecule, he concluded, it bonds with the wax, making it almost
> unremovable. The Australian Bee Journal (quoted from 6/96, Bee Culture,
> p. 376) says virtually every kilogram of European wax is contaminated,
> most likely because of beekeepers recycling fluvalinate-impregnated wax
> for foundation.
>
> European beekeepers, therefore, are examining their beeswax more
> closely than in the past, and not using heavily contaminated product for
> foundation. Dr. Peter Rosenkranz, University of Hohenheim, reported at
> the Fifth Ibero Latin American Beekeeping congress in Mercedes, Uruguay
> (6/1/96) that residues from two to 20 milligrams of fluvalinate per
> kilogram of beeswax have been found. He says these levels might be
> enough to cause pesticide resistance to develop in Varroa. Mr. de Bruyn
> says that so much resistance can already been seen in certain districts
> of Italy, France and Germany that beekeepers are being advised to
> abandon all pyre- throids (chemical relatives of fluvalinate) in favor
of other
> chemicals.
>
> If levels of fluvalinate get too high, might there not be concern
> that honey bees themselves will be poisoned by the chemical designed to
> rid them of Varroa (see 4/92 APIS)? There is some hope that beeswax
> from places that don't have Varroa would dilute the worldwide supply,
> according to the Australian Bee Journal, as referenced in Bee Culture.
> However, it concludes that a return to flavalinate-free wax would take
> an estimated fifty years, provided there was no chemical usage for that time
> period.~
>
> *Professor and Extension Apiculturalist, University of
> Florida. Article from APIS (8/96).
> ================================================================
> ** For sample copy of Blazing Tattles, please send self-
> addressed, stamped envelope to Blazing Tattles, P.O. Box 1073, Half
> Moon Bay, CA 94019, USA. For people outside the U.S., you need to
> go to your post office and purchase a postal coupon which I can
> take to the U.S. Postal Service and exchange for air postage. --C.Gilbert
> ** End of text from cdp:headlines **
>
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