Demon spawn. These things destroy honey bees.

March 10, 2:03 PMRaleigh Beekeeper ExaminerJimmy Chalmers

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Varroa Destructor

Scott Bauer

From the mid eighties beekeepers have been fighting a demon. It is vicious, wicked, evil, vile, ugly, mean and deadly. While not a spiritual force, the mere sight of this tiny bug in a hive or on a bee can cause shuddering fear to the beekeeper. Its very scientific name communicates the reason beekeepers fear this creature~~varroa destructor~~and it lives up to that name.

Varroa lives on the honey bee. It gains its sustenance from the body of the honey bee. It reproduces in the lifecycle of the honey bee. It can only survive in and around the honey bee. At times it has decimated bee hives in entire regions and more than once it has caused a beekeeper to throw hands up and walk away from beekeeping altogether.

Our method of dealing with this menace has been to look at the petro/chemical industry for a quick fix and for years they have obliged with pesticides. A new product would come out. Small and large beekeepers would use it. For a time it would work. The mite would build up immunity to that product and the next year a more powerful product would come out. Year after year, cycle after cycle the industry continued to use stronger and stronger chemicals and the mites grew more and more resistant.

Two articles I have read today from Canada read just like much I have read and experienced here in the US.

• Mites decimating W. Canadian honeybees
  
• Disease, weather kill Vancouver Island bees
  

Scientists in Canada have come to the belief that the varroa mite has become resistant to the chemicals that have been used to destroy it. Instead of removing this pest, we may have created a super varrroa mite that in the future may not respond to chemicals at all. Or if it does we will end up damaging our honey bees. As in dead bees, piled up at the entrance to the hive killed by the pesticide we used to kill the mite.

This madness has got to stop! What we need in North America is a return to a more natural and sustainable view of beekeeping and the honey bee. It is scary to consider taking chemicals out of the process. I know, I did it several years ago and the growth of my apiary has been slower and less profitable than before. What the honey bee industry is doing now is not working. We need more radical, urban natural beekeepers to become active and push the industry, the USDA, the FDA & chemical makers to change. You want to help?