Spider venom kills varroa mites without harming honeybees
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Re: Spider venom kills varroa mites without harming honeybees
#2Some potentially seriously good news there if it all pans out the way it sounds like it might. Fingers crossed for the bees!
Re: Spider venom kills varroa mites without harming honeybees
#3The hard truth these days is that the work of bee keeping is like 80% keeping the mites in check. Plus all current treatments render the honey inedible so you can only do it at the end of the season.
Re: Spider venom kills varroa mites without harming honeybees
#4Still the honeybees keep on dying ...
Perhaps it is time to stop blaming the mites for the decline of the honeybees.
Re: Spider venom kills varroa mites without harming honeybees
#5The hard truth these days is that the work of bee keeping is like 80% keeping the mites in check. Plus all current treatments render the honey inedible so you can only do it at the end of the season.
No. The mites are not what is killing the bees.
And, by the way - natural pathogens exist in just about any population. These very, very rarely led to extinction. There is a media trend to claim the mites are at fault. This reminds me of prior fault yielding e. g. "mad cow disease" - and then the media also stopped doing any further investigation at that point. It's as if they have break points where you can not go past those points. Now it is the mites that get blamed.
Re: Spider venom kills varroa mites without harming honeybees
#6Some potentially seriously good news there if it all pans out the way it sounds like it might. Fingers crossed for the bees!
This assumes the mites are what kills the bees. What is that asssumption is flawed?
Re: Spider venom kills varroa mites without harming honeybees
#7Re: Spider venom kills varroa mites without harming honeybees
#8So what's it going to do to the honey? Will we have spider venom laced honey?
Re: Spider venom kills varroa mites without harming honeybees
#9The hard truth these days is that the work of bee keeping is like 80% keeping the mites in check. Plus all current treatments render the honey inedible so you can only do it at the end of the season.
No. The mites are not what is killing the bees. And, by the way - natural pathogens exist in just about any population. These very, very rarely led to extinction. There is a media trend to claim the mites are at fault. This reminds me of prior fault yielding e. g. "mad cow disease" - and then the media also stopped doing any further investigation at that point. It's as if they have break points where you can not go p…
Lotta unsubstantiated claims you're making there.
Re: Spider venom kills varroa mites without harming honeybees
#10The hard truth these days is that the work of bee keeping is like 80% keeping the mites in check. Plus all current treatments render the honey inedible so you can only do it at the end of the season.
To add, varroa quickly gains immunity to the pharmaceutical treatment we have, so the same medication cannot be used 2 years in a row. Most popular treatment from late 90s that used to kill 99% of varroa is now completely ineffective.
It was explained to me this is well planned and solved in Czechia. Varroa treatment is refunded my the government, but only one type of medication every 6 months. It's cheaper for beekeepers to use whatever the government gives them for free, than use something else. And the medication is free only for a few weeks, so everyone will use it at the same time.