Next Wednesday will be held at Bella Vista a meeting with leaders of various unions and associations to coordinate the  delivery of  beekeeping supplies for the monitoring and acaricide for control of Varroa, a parasite that affects the adult bees and their offspring.

The National Health Service and Food Quality (SENASA) recommended that beekeepers monitor populations of mites in their hives due to the great mortality of bees is causing varroosis across the country. For information on the suggested method for monitoring and recommendations for the control of the parasite, those interested can log onto the website of the Senasa: Recommendations for control Varroosis

Yesterday at a meeting organized by the Ministry of Production where attended the Technical  Dietitian Ms Andrea Cardon, Mr. Ricardo Schneider, Beekeeping Technician Javier Crettaz and more than 50 beekeepers of  the county, presented the results of  varroaanalysis , samples submitted from 93 producers.

Concurrent problems such as floods and pestilence called "varroa" decimated hives in Entre Rios, which has Maciá as its core, and also affected the rest of the country, where they produced a decline of 40 percent. These factors produced a nutritional imbalance that led to a severe bee mortality this year, since in these conditions hives less resistant to pests.

The Maltese islands’ 2,722 registered honey bee colonies are the lowest in Europe and represent only 0.019 per cent of the bees in the European Union. Malta and Gozo seem not to have yet experienced these major unexplained losses due to the CCD. However, some of the greatest local losses come from parasites, such as the Varroa mite which was identified in Malta in August 1992 after having been accidentally introduced through the importation of foreign bees. Varroa killed two-thirds of the bee colonies in Malta and it has now established itself in practically every colony in Malta and Gozo.

In the city of Saladillo held a Regional Workshop on Varroa. In the same 38 local beekeepers of  Tapalqué, General Alvear, May 25 and Roque Pérez exchanged experiences with the technicians of the National Beekeeping program (PROAPI), Regional Center Project Buenos Aires INTA Beekeeping Southern and Rural Change , in order to assess the situation in the region with respect to this parasite.

If the  world’s worst bee pest, the varroa mite, takes hold in Australia, local apiarists will in one stroke have been delivered their biggest nightmare and their biggest business opportunity..A new report, Pollination Aware, estimates that the farm pollination services provided by wild bees to be valued at more than $1.7 billion for the 35 most pollination-dependent crops alone, and that 65 per cent of the country’s agricultural ouput is dependent on these unsung workers. When varroa arrives, the pollination services provided by feral bees will “diminish to insignificance” within 5-10 years, the Pollination Aware report observes, then beekeepers will take a big hit from varroa, as their counterparts have done in countries like the United States and New Zealand.

This film shows how a small hive beetle has been in the top attached a varroa.

Organized by the National Institute of Agricultural Technology and the municipality of Saladillo, on  September 10, 2010 in the Auditorium of the Agricultural Cooperative Livestock Saladillo.

A British beekeeper  Ron Hoskins, 79,  who has carried out research on his colonies for 18 years, has isolated and is breeding a strain of bees which groom each other to remove the mites.  He is now taking sperm from these bees and artificially inseminating queens from other hives to allow the new breed to spread through Britain.  The British Beekeepers' Association, which represents 18,000 beekeepers, yesterday described his work as 'exciting'.