For the third straight year, beekeepers in Alberta, Canada’s largest honey-producing province, are struggling to bounce back from unexpectedly high winterkill. And the story is much the same all over Canada.
Traditional chemical controls for Varroa are failing to keep the pest below economic thresholds, as the mites build up resistance, and the weakened colonies are more vulnerable to Nosema and other disease. Beekeepers are desperate to find new weapons to keep their colonies alive.
As the Edmonton Journal reports (Bugs, fungus attacking Alberta’s bees: Keepers say chemical warfare not working):
[Alberta] Provincial apiculturist Medhat Nasr said while beekeepers expected losses due to the failure of pest control, they were still taken by surprise by the extent of the problem.
“It was fast, and losses were far above their expectations.”
The effects of Varroa mites and Nosema, combined with a long winter, played a major role in losses, according to a new report from Alberta Agriculture.
Emergency approval last fall of a one-time use of Apivar, a chemical product popular in other countries but not approved here, had some effect on the varroa mite, but new treatments are “desperately needed,” says the report.
Also, traditional antibiotic treatments did not effectively control the new strain of nosema, which gives the bees a form of diarrhea.
Even colonies that survived the winter were severely weakened by the two pests, the report says.
Colony Collapse Disorder, which has so greatly affected bee populations in the United States, is not a factor in Canada — including New Brunswick — according to apiculturists, but many Canadian beekeepers have seen their colonies strugglel under the combination of weather factors, pests and diseases as is the case in Alberta.
Written by workerbeej
Topics: How to Keep Bees, World of Apiculture