The Associated Press | Posted: Monday, April 11, 2005 12:00 am
OGDEN, Utah (AP) - An explosion of varroa mites - tiny, eight-legged spider cousins that can nibble honeybees and larvae to death - endangers bees of the "Fruitway" along U.S. Highway 89 in northern Utah.
"Honeybee managers are finding it's more expensive for them to buy new queens and packages of workers each year," said Dale Nielson, who rents his beehives to Utah growers. "As a result, there are not enough colonies."
A shortage of honeybees means growers must pay more to rent them. A swarm of honeybees that may have cost $40 to rent for a season several years ago can now cost $80 to $130, said Duane Cox of the Cox Honey Co. in Wellsville.
Of most concern is the mite's impact on California's almond crop. California produces 80 percent of the world's almonds, and beekeepers from other states such as Utah travel there each year to rent beehives to California orchard keepers.
There are a variety of pesticides approved for killing the mites, but the mites have built up resistance to the pesticides over time.
Wayne Perry, who runs the Perry Honey Farm in Farmington, Utah, treats his 500 hives with apistan-coated strips, which kill mites but leave bees and honey unharmed.
"If you don't give them medication, they (the mites) will kill all of the bees," he said.
Perry is worried the mites will become resistant to the apistan. Next year, he plans to use one of several types of acid approved to treat mites.
Eventually, however, he could run out of effective treatments, and that's the fear that research entomologists like Rosalind James are working to alleviate.
"There isn't anything available now that works really well," said James, who works at the USDA Logan Bee Lab at Utah State University.
James is developing a mite-killing fungus, Metarhizium anisopliae, which she hopes will be available on the general market in two years. It does not hurt honeybees.
In a separate Logan Bee Lab project, research leader Bill Kemp is investigating techniques to manage the blue orchard bee, a native Utah bee and a pollinating alternative to the honeybee.
Much like a financial portfolio, Kemp says it's important to diversify your pollen haulers.
The blue orchard bee is immune to the effects of the mites. It doesn't produce honey, but Kemp says it is an effective pollinator. What's more, it's less likely to sting than honeybees.
"The people in the Fruitway, those who continue to grow crops like cherries, are finding it's a very good pollinator," Kemp said. "It flies in weather that honeybees don't like flying in - cloudy, wet, rainy weather."