Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Other animals
Similarly, I have watched toads sit at the hive's entrance and take bees. I have also seen
a preying mantis lay her egg sack in the shelter of one of the hive's handles, presumable
so that her offspring could build up on my bees! It was all fascinating stuff.
Perhaps one problem that may be more serious is wasp predation. The best way to deal
with wasps is, perhaps, to place bottle wasp-traps near each hive - bottles with sweet
liquid or beer in them. The wasps can then enter but can't get out. Other than that,
you can follow the wasps back to their nest and destroy it. I have done this on many
occasions. I don't like doing it because I believe that even wasps have their purpose
- they act as the vultures or carrion crows of the insect world - but, now and again,
needs must.
There could also be a problem with oriental hornets, such as the mandarin hornet, if
ever these spread to other shores. This beast can decimate a colony in no time simply
by sitting there and decapitating the guard bees and then going for the brood. However
fascinating this might be, it would obviously go against your management strategy. The
eastern honey-bee has sorted this problem out. It balls the hornet with a group of bees,
and then raises the temperature in the ball to a degree more than the hornet can stand.
The bees can survive this temperature but the hornet dies. The western honey-bee,
Apis
mellifera
, doesn't know this trick, so watch out for the hornet.
Bears are a problem in both Spain and the USA and, I imagine, in areas of eastern
Europe and Russia. The USA and Spain have designed strategies to deal with the
bears, and the Spanish even encourage them by placing primitive hives in old, stone
bee enclosures with broken walls for the bears to ravage. The bees are then replaced
with more from modern hives located in bear-safe areas. Any commercial hives
damaged by bears are assessed quickly by independent, non-governmental experts and
compensation is paid - again quickly. Even the beekeepers are happy with this regime,
and so they do not try to kill the bears, which are very few in numbers.
In the USA, where bears are not an endangered species, different strategies are being
developed as the authorities realize that increasing urbanization and the destruction
of natural habitats mean that both farmers and wildlife need somehow to be
