95 Percent of Ohio's Wild Bees Are Dead
8/19/96
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95 percent of Ohio's wild bees are dead
8/19/96
Copyright 1996 by United Press International
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- The only honeybees alive today in Ohio are
those being kept by beekeepers, the Ohio Department of Agriculture Apiary
Division said Monday.
"Ferel colonies (wild honeybees) are pretty much gone -- probably 95
percent of those -- and the reason is because of the (parasitic) Varroa
mite," Gordon Rudloff, the division's agriculture inspection manager told
United Press International.
Tracheal mites and varroa mites have been a problem in the United States
for about 10 years. Tracheal mites get into the breathing tubes of adult
bees, where they reproduce and block the flow of oxygen, while Varroa mites
attach themselves to a bee's body and drink its blood.
Worker honeybees are busiest during the summer, flying many miles
collecting nectar and pollen, and using the liquid nectar to make honey
to feed other members of their colony.
As they make those collections, the bees spread pollen from one flower to
another, a process which allows flowers to reproduce.
Many crops, such as apples, blueberries and melons, depend on bees carrying
pollen, and farmers pay beekeepers for the use of their bees to pollinate
the crops. Because of the bee shortage, that cost of usage was expected to
increase.
"The bees only live with the colony intact and everybody healthy. They're
interdependent on each other."
Yellowjackets, members of the wasp family, are not affected by the
parasite, and Rudloff expects their populations will increase this month
and will appear across the state. Yellowjackets, with the exception of the
queen, die during the winter.
The ODA is supplying beekeepers with on-site analyses of their bee colonies
to help protect remaining bees by quickly identifying disease and
parasites.
The infestation has increased the price of honey this year from about $1.80
a pound to $2.25.
Ohio's honey production is valued at nearly $1.5 million from the state's
estimated 30,000 bee colonies, down from 375,000 colonies in 1947, when the
Buckeye State was the leading honey-producing state in the nation.
"The Varroa mite is the most significant factor in the decline of Ohio's
bee population," Rudloff said, "but it is controllable upon detection."