Episode 51 of the podcast is now live! You can listen over on Podbean, or wherever you get your podcasts.
This week, I am reposting one of my earliest episodes (Episode 4) that covers all things Varroa Mite. I go over what this nasty little parasite is, how it transferred from the Asian honeybee (apis cerana) to our beloved European honeybee (apis mellifera), it’s method of transmission into the US, testing methods, and available treatments.
Although I am sorry not to have new information to share this week, I do think this episode is worth a listen (or re-listen!). Those of us in the West are moving into Autumn, which is the time of year when mite levels can rise (sometimes alarmingly) so this episode offers a refresher course for seasoned beekeepers, and a solid introduction for first year beekeepers.
Just a couple of notes on this episode:
The sound quality is not as good, although I’ve done my best to modify that.
At one point while discussing oxalic acid vaporization, I rather confidently state that OA vapor will kill baby bees. This confused current-me! I’m not sure why I said this with such confidence because, right now, I wasn’t sure if this was true! So I did a little fact checking, and I suspect that past-me was confused. Oxalic acid is not recommended for use when the colony is raising brood because it cannot penetrate capped brood cells, meaning there could be plenty of nasty, reproducing varroa in said cells that are evading treatment. That said, I did find a paper that indicates that oxalic acid is, in fact, toxic to bee larvae. So I ended up being correct but still wanted to clarify! You can read the paper on the effect of oxalic acid on bee brood here.
You can find my original blog post that covers everything discussed in this episode here.
On a personal note, while listening to myself during this episode, I couldn’t help but think of Family Guy’s Hugh Grant impression: “Oh uh, ummm, well, I. . I’m just so charmingly befuddled!”. I hope I sound more confident and less like a British stereotype now that nearly two years have passed since this recording!
Thank you for listening, and I hope you find this episode informative! I admit that I am proud of it; it’s a good introduction to all things varroa mite and holds up after all this time.