Bee Colony Health, 30 New Sawflies, USDA Releases Russian Wasps
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: RSS
Charles Osborne Owner-operator, Entomologist at Osborne Pest Management Ltd. Colorado Springs Co.
The Grounds Guys @GroundsGuysCA.
SEO
Requesting reviews from satisfied clients by having a link ready
Book of The Week
The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals by Sean Covey.
Pest Alerts
30 New Species of Sawfly in Arkanasa
Dr. Michael Skvarla collected 47 species 30 of which had not been found in Arkansas before.
Terrestrial arthropods of Steel Creek, Buffalo National River, Arkansas. II. Sawflies (Insecta: Hymenoptera: “Symphyta”)
http://bdj.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=8830
Pest News
The USDA will Release Russian Wasps Spathius galinae Against the Emerald Ash Borer
in the study Reproductive and developmental biology of the emerald ash borer parasitoid Spathius galinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) as affected by temperature
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1049964416300111
Newspaper Headlines read “More Than 40 Percent of Bee Hives Died in Past Year”
http://www.usnews.com/news/science/news/articles/2015/05/13/survey-more-than-40-percent-of-bee-hives-died-in-past-year
A Study Reports Nation’s Beekeepers Lost 44 Percent of Bees in 2015-16
More than 5,700 beekeepers from 48 states responded to this year’s survey.
Collectively the beekeepers managed 389,083 colonies in October 2015.
The survey, which asked both the commercial and small-scale beekeepers to track the health and survival rates of their honey bee colonies.
This is the 10 year of the winter loss survey, and the 6 year to include summer and annual losses in addition to winter loss data.
The beekeepers surveyed are responsible for about 15 percent of the nation’s estimated 2.66 million managed honey bee colonies.
A clear culprit of Colony Collapse Disorder is the varroa mite
“Varroa is a particularly challenging problem among backyard beekeepers (defined as those who manage fewer than 50 colonies). “Many backyard beekeepers don’t have any varroa control strategies in place.”
Bee Informed Classification of a beekeeper
Backyard (less than 50 colonies)
Sideline (50-500 colonies)
Commercial (500 or more colonies)
USDA Classification of a beekeeper
5 or less colonies
5 or more colonies
https://beeinformed.org/2016/05/10/nations-beekeepers-lost-44-percent-of-bees-in-2015-16/
In a more recent post “Interpreting and Understanding the Differences in Honey Bee Colony Loss Numbers From Different National Surveys.”
All migratory commercial operations were sampled, in addition to a representative sample of the small scale beekeepers (less than 5 colonies) that qualify as farms.
As The Bee Informed Partnership BIP does not possess a list of registered beekeepers in the US, we performed a sample of convenience, trying to reach a maximum numbers of beekeepers through different means (bee journals, internet, paper survey) and inviting participants to forward the invitation to their peers.
The only requirement to be part of the BIP survey was to have colonies located in (at least) one US state or territory.
Questions to ask of beekeepers
Migrotory vs stationary
Artificial Diets
Poor Nutrition
Soy Pollen
Treatment-free beekeepers vs Treatments pro beekeepers
In the surveys are we asking questions to answers we want to reflect or are we asking questions of things we don’t know to get the real answer.
https://beeinformed.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Project-Plan_14_final.pdf
USDA Honey Bee Colonies Report in The US
http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/current/BeeColonies/BeeColonies-05-12-2016.pdf
