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World's Beeswax Contamination Increasing



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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