George Imirie's PINK PAGES
March 2002

A MAGIC BULLET???

This monthly edition of my PINK PAGES is a different one because I have resorted to something I have never done before - I have REPEATED a previous PINK PAGE and added some pages of more explanation of the problem in the hopes that my readers will see the importance of SAVING apis mellifera and how to do it

It has been 17 years since the tracheal mite, acarapis woodi, was found in the U.S., and 14 years since the more dangerous varroa mite, varroa jacobsoni, arrived here. These mites have created far more problems for beekeeping than American Foul Brood ever did. Part of the problems caused by the mites is the completely different environment enjoyed by adults after World War II in contrast to the environment of adults prior to the war. Prior to the Great War, the great majority of adults were raised in a rural area where many farms had bees, feral bees (wild bees) were literally everywhere even in downtown city trees, a normal work week was 50-60 hours, honey sales were important income "help", almost nobody was afraid of being stung, and "on-the-job" training by someone with great experience (in lieu of education) was the normal way of life. Sons were taught beekeeping by Daddy, who had been taught by Grampa; or taught by a group of "good old boys" in the spirit of friendliness.

In spite of the apparent success of those beekeepers of that era, most were only beeHAVERS, knowing precious little about bee biology, bee behavior, bee diseases, and having meager knowledge of the overall importance of honey bee pollination to our human food ecology. In the post war years leading up to the findings of mites in this country, adults had a much higher standing of income, education, vacation time, and less concerns.

Now most problems could be solved by just "spending money', "buying a quick-fix", or search your computer for the answer. No longer are people willing to work more than 40 hours/week, or do anything that interferes with their vacation time, weekends at the beach, or their TV time. They want a MAGIC BULLET to correct all their honey bee problems; and it is O.K. if this Magic Bullet costs a little money as long as it does not require any of the beekeeper's TIME!

Since the arrival of mites, no feral bees are left, millions and millions of honey bee colonies have died by mite infection, some beekeepers losing 90% of all the hives in his apiary, thousands of yesterday's beekeepers giving up in despair, the entry of cheaper imported honey into the U. S., trailer loads of colonies being carried up the coast of our country "following the bloom" for crop pollination, a million colonies being brought into California each February just to pollinate almonds, apple orchards becoming non-productive due to lack of bees, and beekeepers trying almost anything from Dentyne gum to vinegar spray to kill the mites. Our MAGIC BULLETS have included Miticur, Apistan, CheckMite, Apicure, menthol, grease patties, of course more concentrated Terramycin, food grade mineral oil, wintergreen, thymol, eucalyptus, numerous essential oils, and probably Uncle Tom's dirty socks. Recently, there has been much ballyhoo about Russian queens (just another Carniolan strain), SMR queens (but since it takes "two to tango", where are the SMR drones?), and reduced cell size to 4.9 mm.; and perhaps one of these might work in a scientist's apiary, but can they work for the hardworking beekeeper whose interest is keeping his bees alive to make a crop of honey? Just because John Glenn can pilot a space capsule to the moon does not imply that these flights will soon be offered to the public for a weekend retreat. Like a drowning person grabbing for a straw, you name something, and somebody has already tried that, so the beekeeper defends his apparent knowledge of bees by reporting that his bees died from a cold, hard winter. LET US FACE IT - NO MAGIC BULLET HAS YET BEEN FOUND.

People want to know "what are all these high salaried government scientists have been doing, and why haven't they found a QUICK FIX that is CHEAP?" First there are precious few bee scientists in our country, because our legislators know almost nothing about a honey bee, other than HONEY and STING, so bees are deemed quite UNIMPORTANT except for the trial lawyer who sues a beekeeper for millions of dollars because his bees stung someone who was vandalizing an apiary. Further, research is a SLOW process, and an expensive process; but primarily, the MAGIC BULLET has to kill the mites, but NOT kill the bees, NOT adulterate the honey, NOT be absorbed in the bees wax comb, NOT be dangerous in handling by the beekeeper, and CHEAP IN PRICE! That is a TALL ORDER! Just 2 weeks ago, the Federal Government is proposing the closure of all BEE LABS except Weslaco, Texas. That is implying to me that our government is saying: "We don't need U.S. honey, when we can get along with foreign honey; and we don't need U.S. crops of fruit and vegetables, when we can import those fruits and vegetables." I, too, can say "Mr. Legislator, I don't need YOU either if you are so uninformed that you are unaware of the importance of honey bee pollination to our HUMAN food supply and jobs for people in beekeeping". (I better shut-up; I am just a old, retired scientist, who does not understand the new ways of GLOBAL ECONOMY.)