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Bee DiseasesPests and Parasites

Honey Bee Brood Diseases and Pests

• American foulbrood

• European foulbrood

• Chalkbrood

• Sacbrood

• Varroa mites

• Small hive beetle

Learn

what is

normal

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American foulbroodAFB prepupa

Pupal tongue symptom

AFB Ropiness test

AFB cappings – early stage Ropiness test AFB cappings –advanced

stage

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AFB scale

AFB scale

formation

AFB scale

Checking for scaleAFB scale AFB - How Does it Spread?

• Robbing diseased colonies

• Beekeepers feeding honey containing spores

• Beekeepers moving combs from diseased hives to healthy colonies

• Beekeepers moving diseased colonies from one location to another

Abandoned apiary Robbed colony

Feeding honey from diseased hives

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Heat therapy

Cleaning hands and tools

European foulbrood

EFB

Treatments with oxytetracycline

• Terramycin soluble powder – TM-25

• To treat one colony one time, mix one teaspoon TM-25 with 5 teaspoons powdered sugar

• Mix larger volumes 1 part TM-25 to 5 parts powdered sugar and apply 2 tablespoons per treatment

• Treat 3X in spring 7 days apart and 1X in fall after removing surplus honey

• Stop treatments 6 weeks prior to adding surplus honey supers

Strains of AFB that are resistant to terramycin

• Tylosin can be used if you have a strain of AFB that does not respond to terramycin

• Tylosin tartrate is available as a soluble powder

• Do not use the injectable or other forms of Tylosin…. Use only the soluble form

Tylosin treatment instructions

• Mix 10g of Tylosin tartrate with 2.2 pounds of powdered sugar

• Apply 20g of the mixture to each colony 3 times about a week apart

• 20g of the mixture contains 200 mg Tylosin

• Stop treatment 6 weeks before applying surplus honey supers

How to apply TM

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Sacbrood Sacbrood

Chalkbrood

Chalkbrood mummies

The small hive beetle life cycle

Beetles

fly into

colonies

Young

beetles

hatch

after 3-4

weeks

Larvae

leave hive

to pupate

in soil

Eggs laid in

protected places

Eating phase

of larvae

Adapted from Otto Boecking, Ceile Germany 2005

The small hive beetle larva

Two rows of

dorsal

spines

Urogomphi

Three pair of

prolegs

Stigmata

Small Hive

Beetle

Brood Abnormalities Confused with Diseases

• Failing queen

• Laying workers

• Starvation

• Chilled brood

• Pesticide poisoning

• Toxic plant poisoning

• Wax moth injury

• Mite injury

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Drone layer

Laying

workers

Chilled brood and/or

starvation

Neglected brood due to

pesticide injury killing nurse

bees

Wax moth

tunneling

Adult Bee Diseases, Pests and Parasites

• Tracheal mites

• Varroa mites

• Nosema

• Honey bee viruses

Tracheal mite

Varroa mite

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Mite Population Growth

American Association Of Professional Apiculturists, 1997

Commonly used detection methods

When to treat

• In the spring, take action to reduce mite populations if they are detectable using the sugar roll technique

• Sample again in mid-August. If you detect 3 or more mites per 100 bees (9 mites on a 300 bee sample), remove crop and suppress mite populations

• In mid-November, colonies with up to 12 mites per 100 bees will over winter without a reduction in spring brood and bee populations

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Treatments for reducing Varroa populations

• Apil-Life Var (thymol)

• Api-Guard (thymol)

• Mite Away II (formic acid)

• Mite Away Quick Strip (formic acid)

• Apistan (fluvalinate)

• Checkmite+ (coumaphos)

• Hop Guard (Hop beta acids)

• Oxalic acid (not yet available in U.S.)Checkmite+ MAQS

Apistan Api Guard Api Life-Var Hop Guard

Mite Away II

http://www.miteaway.com/

http://www.mannlakeltd.com/hopguard/

Apiguard – thymol in a gelatin-based formulation

• Oxalic acid –trickle 50 ml of a 3.5% solution in sugar syrup onto broodless colonies

• Not approved yet, but inexpensive and effective

Management practices for

reducing Varroa populations

• Drone brood removal

• Screened bottom boards

• Resistant queens

• Starting new packages

• Powdered sugar dusting

Powdered sugar dusting

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Nosema is a

microsporidian

parasite that

attaches to the

midgut to feed

and produce

more spores

Dysentary – high moisture honey or Nosema

Mixing fumidil-b

Skunk damage

Mice can severely damage colonies in winter Pests of stored equipment

Greater wax moth Small hive beetle

Almond Pollination and

Honey Bee Health

• Value of honey produced in the U.S. in

2007 = $175,000.000

• Dollars paid to U.S. beekeepers for

almond pollination in 2007 = $175,500,000

• Almond crop = $3 billion

• All crop pollination = $15 billion

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Almond Growing Area of

California

Almond-Bearing Acreage and U.S.

Honey Bee Colonies 1999-2010

Source: California Agricultural Statistics Service, National Agricultural Statistics Service

Average Almond Pollination Fees, 1995-2010

California State Beekeeping Association Pollination Surveys

Symptoms of CCD

• Rapid loss of adult worker bees

• Brood to adult bee imbalance with

excess brood and a queen

remaining in hives with few adult

bees

• Remaining bees predominately

young bees

Biotic stress - introductions

• Acarapis woodi – 1984

• Varroa destructor – 1987

• Apis mellifera scutellata - 1990

• Athenia tumida – 1998

• Nosema ceranae – 2007

• Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus - 2007

1984A. woodi

1987V. destructor

1990AHB

1998A. tumida

2007

IAPV

N. ceranae

Abiotic stress

• In hive miticides

• Out of hive chemicals

• Nutritional stress

• Supplemental feeding

Nutrition and habitat conservation

• Nutrition issues

– Poor foraging conditions prior to

and after shipping

– Syrup products and potential

problems (HMF in HFCS)

– Monocultures and nutrition

– Mega Bee diet (USDA, Tuscon)

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Colony Collapse Disorder

• CCD – something new or déjà vu?

• 1897 American Bee Journal Report

• 1970’s Disappearing Disease Reports

• Sporadically has affected individual

beekeepers

• Scale, extent and value to almond

industry have made losses prominent