Los Banos beekeeper Gene Brandi made a decision last year that cut into his bottom line, but he thinks it may ensure the survival of his bees. He will no longer allow his bees to pollinate watermelon crops – no matter how badly the growers need him.
Honeybees are being killed off in huge numbers by parasites, threatening the crucial pollination of crops. A record one in three of the 240,000 hives in Britain did not survive the spring and the main culprit is the varroa mite.
University of Montana researchers and their UM-affiliated company, Bee Alert Technology Inc., have employed a new tool created by a U.S. Army lab to discover a honeybee virus invading North America.
Farmers and beekeepers say they are worried the Government will “desert” beekeepers and look to farmers to help pay for controls on the spread of varroa mites.
A Guelph beekeeper has been ordered by the Toronto Board of Health to stop giving out samples at his CNE booth, because the board says eating anything in the same area as animals is a public health risk.
The Government has approved bringing forward varroa funding to maintain North and South Island movement control lines until July 2009, Biosecurity Minister Jim Anderton said today.
Surveillance will be intensified south of Gordonvale after six foraging Asian honey bees were detected near Walsh’s Pyramid on Monday afternoon.
A German prosecutor is investigating Werner Wenning , Bayer’s chairman, and Friedrich Berschauer , the head of Bayer CropScience , after critics alleged that they knowingly polluted the environment.
There is good news and bad news in the gardening world. Good news? Some scientists believe that the killer of honeybees has been identified as a couple of specific pesticides (both are artificial nicotine-like products) that infuse plants systemically, poisoning the pollen — and our bees. France and Germany have already banned these pesticides. The bad news? The manufacturer, Bayer, denies those allegations and keeps on producing it. It is for sale in our country, where commerce rules.
The state Department of Agriculture reported Monday it located two more varroa mites among 2,850 bees from a feral beehive in Hilo over the weekend.
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