Our beloved bees fall foul of a mighty mite (From Gazette & Herald)

Our beloved bees fall foul of a mighty mite

9:00am Thursday 19th March 2009

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THERE are worrying signs that our bee population is dwindling to such an extent that our crops are in danger of suffering terminal decline.

Although we might be aware of honey bees only when they visit the flowers in our garden, it is an undisputed fact that their work on a far wider scale enables us to produce vital crops of fruit, vegetables and cereals. In other words bees are vital in helping to produce our food.

It is mainly bees, albeit helped by some other insects, that pollinate the flowers which develop into fruit and vegetables. It is said that our production of fruit and vegetables is worth around £200 million per year to the British economy with 90 per cent of our apple production relying on honey bees.

The problem is a disease that is not readily recognised by some of our bee keepers. The endemic varroa parasite causes the fatal disease among our bee population and estimates suggest that, due to this, the bee population during the 2007/8 winter declined by around a third. Although the disease did not appear in this country until 1992, it now affects up to 95 per cent of hives. The varroa mite feeds on the bees by attacking their legs to suck their blood but it has been found resistant to most of the treatments designed to deter it.

The problem has now reached the point of being of immense national concern to organisations such as the National Audit Office and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. One suggestion is that all bee keepers voluntarily join a national register so that periodic checks can be made at their hives, and so that expert advice can be offered to help them identify the presence of the mite and then deal effectively with it with suitable approved treatments.

If a voluntary registration system does not work, then consideration will be given to making it compulsory as happens already in New Zealand, France and Belgium.

There is no doubt that an organised attempt needs to be made if our bee population is to survive and a great deal of responsibility does rest upon those who keep bees as little more than a hobby.

It is not only this mite that causes our bees to vanish – the climate is a major problem and bees do suffer from many other diseases and parasites.

However, it is widely recognised, both in Britain and overseas, that the predominant cause of the decline of the honey bee is due to the activities of the varroa mite which is now regarded as a world-wide plague. It is a tiny reddish coloured crab-like parasite that is extremely difficult to see with the naked eye. It sucks the bees’ blood and in so doing damages any developing pupae so that they are born with deformities.

The affected young bees may suffer from wing damage or other deformities that lead to them being ejected from the hive with no chance of survival. It means that all bee keepers should learn as much as possible about this disease so that it can be prevented.

Life without our bees, whether from hives or not, would be unimaginable.

The relationship between bees and humans extends deep into our history. It is known the bee was a sacred emblem of the Egyptian kings some 3,500 years before Christ, and the art of bee keeping was practised by the Sumarians and the ancient Egyptians.

One of the tricks used by the ancient Egyptians was to float their bees down the River Nile on specially-constructed rafts. This allowed them to take advantage of the nectar during the changing seasons along that route, and when their trip terminated the bees were recovered and returned to their base on the backs of donkeys. It was the realisation in early man that he could increase his harvest of honey by containing the bees and this produced the idea of hives. As long ago as the Stone-Age, dwellers in Europe realised the food potential of honey and milk.

Beeswax was also an important product and there is record in Corsica in 180 BC, of a debt being settled with 100,000 pounds of beeswax. The wax was widely used in religious ceremonies that might explain why candles have always been popular in our churches and temples.

Among the links between humans and bees is an old belief that a bee sting is a cure for rheumatism and that the venom in the sting was capable of curing arthritis. One curious practice was to give the bees a little of everything their keeper had owned before he died and I have a note of a widow giving the bees her late husband’s clay pipe, smashed into powder.

It seems they liked it because, she said, “they ate every bit”.

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